LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



"We have not followed Cunningly Deuised Fables." 

ties: :e] 

HOLY RESURRECTION. 

A CRITICAL EXPOSITION 
OF ALL ^|^|^^ THAT IS 

Told us in the New Testament Narratiues Concerning the 

Resurrection and 

OF JESUi 




REV. H. M. PAYNTER, A. M., 

AUTHOR OF 

"The Shadow on the Hearth," "A TIenovated Earth," "Our 
Duty in the Present Crisis," "Brief History of the 
War in Missouri," "The Holy Supper," "The 
Holy Sorrow," "The Holy Death," &c. 



CHICAGO: 
C. H. Whiting, 137 Wabash Ayenue. 
1884. 



0 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by 
REV. H. M. PAYNTER, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



Gallop Bros., Printers, 115 S. IIalsted St. 



-s§iiTO*ts- 

Thomas Mathesoh, Esq., 

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAXD, 

T7ie eminent Christian merchant and philanthropist, and the tireless 
and efficient worker in the cause of Jesus, 

%%%%% Wiovh is §rMmU&, 

As a token of high esteem, and as a remembrancer of both the many 
happy hours spent by his cheerful fireside, and of the 
kindness extended during an evangelistic tour 
in Great Britain. 



BY THE AUTHOR. 



f 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



PREFACE. 



Svt^IHE devout student sees harmonistic difficulties 
T- J -T^ in the narratives of the Resurrection, which f ur- 
ther investigations may remove, but which 
88 may not be fully cleared up this side of heaven. 
They lie not in the subject itself, but in the 
want of sufficient information upon it. But the great 
fact stands out as clear as the sun, and unshakable in its 
everlasting repose; Jesus actually arose from the dead. 
The honest student who has learning sufficient to judge 
intelligently, and time sufficient to go through all that 
has been written adversely to the narratives, or to the 
great fact they give, sees that the difficulties do not dis- 
turb the integrity of the narratives, nor the reality of 
the fact which they relate. The heaviest assaults have 
been made upon John's Gospel. But it remains irre- 
fragible, and its testimony is conclusive. 

The construction of a continuous narrative, that will 
be perfectly accurate, seems impossible. The one given 
in this work is the result of very careful study, and is, 
1 hope, not far from correct. Its perusal may help to 
show more distinctly how the Conqueror of death con- 
quered the unbelief of His disciples, and brought out, 
and completed, their faith. It may also give us live- 
lier impressions of the infinite excellencies and fulness 



6 THE HOLY EESUKKECTION. 

which are in Jesus, and cannot but strengthen our 
faith in the glorious fact, 

"THE LOKD IS KISEN INDEED." 

It would be tedious to mention all the books which 
I have examined in my investigations, I have weighed 
carefully the arguments of hostile, as of well as friendly, 
scholarship. This I have done, not for the purpose of 
combatting any one, but to see whether my faith in the 
Resurrection was futile, or was based upon a solid fact. I 
have also, at every step, examined all critical works, that 
would help to a clearer understanding of the original 
text, and I have aimed to let that text tell its own 
great story. For all the help which 1 have received 
from the great scholars who have gone over this field, 
I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness. 

I give thanks to Almighty God for His blessing 
which has attended the previous publications of this 
series. To Him I commend this book. And if He be 
graciously pleased to use it, to Him be all the glory, 
for to Him it belongs. 

A generous public will permit me to express my 
grateful recognition of the favor with which it has so 
kindly received the books already out. Each one has 
met a hearty welcome, a ready sale, and many readers. 
And many an expression of thanks has the author re- 
ceived for the instruction and comfort which the 
perusal has afforded. May this one have a like success 
with the former three, and be alike used in blessing. 

Chicago, April, 1884. H. M. Paynter. 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



7 



PRELIMINARY STUDY. 




On What Day Did Jesus Arise? 

HE question concerning the day upon which 
Jesus was crucified, and hence the day upon 
which He arose from the dead, has lately been 
revived. Some of those agitating it are acting 
in the interests of truth; others merely to create a sen- 
sation; and others, still, evidently with the design to 
throw discredit upon the sacred Narratives, and thus 
weaken the hold of the facts upon the mind. It has 
been, because of these agitations, very strongly urged 
upon me, by gentlemen of high character and position, 
to give the results of my own studies on this subject in 
an opening section of this work. The literature upon 
the subject is very voluminous, and a review of it I 
leave to other and abler pens. All I propose to do is 
to bring together, in one view, and as clearly as possi- 
ble, what it seems to me the sacred pages teach upon 
the various questions involved. 

The following facts may be accepted as unquestion- 
able: (a) that Jesus instituted His Supper on the same 
night in which He was betrayed; (b) that He was cru- 



8 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



cified on the following day; (c) that the whole his- 
tory of the Supper, and of His betrayal, trials, cruci- 
fixion, death and burial, all occurred within the 24 hours 
beginning with the evening of His institution of the 
Supper; and (d) that He arose the first day of the week. 

In the Narratives we find the phrases, "passover," 
"feast" and "day of unleavened bread." What? our 
first question is, is the import of these terms, as to the 
time of their observance? 

1 — An examination of the terms in the O. T. show 
(a) that "to kill and eat the passover," was to kill and 
eat the paschal lamb; (Ex. xii, 11; Num. ix, 6; 2 
Chron. xxx, 15); and (b) that the term, "passover," was 
used to embrace the other sacrifices offered in connection 
with the festival, and also the whole festival itself, of 
unleavened bread. (Lev. xxiii, 6; Num. ix, 3; Deut. 
xvi, 1-3; 2 Chron. xxx, 1, 13; xxxv, 1-17. And further, 
(c) the terms, "passover" and '^festival of unleavened 
bread," are, in some passages, expressly distinguished 
(as in Lev. xxiii, 5, 6; Num. xxviii, 16, IT, where the 
term, "passover," is limited to the paschal supper), and 
in other places are used interchangeably. The precise 
meaning must be determined by the context. 

2 — On the first day of the "seven days of unleavened 
bread," all leaven was put away before 3 P. M. (Ex. xii, 
15). This first day is defined in Deut. xvi, 4, as the 
day on which the lamb was sacrificed, that is, 14th 
Nisan. (Ex. xii, 6, 18-20.) This day included, the festi- 
val continued eight days. (Jos. Ant., 2, 15, 1.) 

3 — The paschal lamb was slain "between the two 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



9 



evenings," i. e., between 3 and 6 P. M., on the 14th 
Nisan (Abib, in the Pentateuch): "Ye shall kill it (the 
lamb) on the fourteenth day between the two evenings" 
(Ex. xii, 6) ; "thou shall sacrifice the passover at even, 
at the going down of the sun." (Deut. xvi, 6.) 

4 — Immediately at sunset the paschal meal was 
eaten: "At even is the Lord's passover." (Lev. xxiii, 5. 
"Between the two evenings ye shall keep it in His 
appointed seasons." (Num. ix, 3; see also Ex. xii, 8-10.) 

5 — "In the 14th of the first month, at even, is the 
Lord's passover. And on the 15th of the same month 
is the festival ot unleavened bread. Seven days ye 
must eat unleavened bread. In the first day (i. e., of 
the seven) ye shall have a holy convocation : ye shall do 
no servile work. And on the seventh day ye shall 
have a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work." 
(Lev. xxiii, 5-7; Num. xxviii, 16-25; see also Ex. xii, 
15-17; xiii, 6; xxiii, 15; xxxiv, 18; Jos. Ant. 3, 10, 15.) 
The 15th Nisan is evidently the first day of the feast. 

6 — The Jews reckoned the day from sunset to sunset. 
"The evening and the morning was day one." Gen. i; 
see also Lev. xxiii, 32.) As the passover had to be 
killed, and then eaten on the 14th Nisan, it must have 
been at the close of that day. For if eaten at the open- 
ing ot it, the lamb must have been slain on the 13th, 
but the statute required it to be killed on the 14th day 
of the month. Clearly, the paschal meal was eaten at 
the close ot the 14th and the opening of the 15th 
Nisan, with which the first day of the festival began. 

7 — This day, which began at sunset of the 14th, was 



X THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

the first day of heortee, the festival (i. e., annual fes- 
tive commemoration,) of unleavened bread. And this 
festival began at the very time of eating the paschal 
meal. (Ex. xii, 18.) From the even of the 14th until 
the 21st day it continued. 

8 — The paschal was the introductory meal of the 
seven days' festival. Josephus calls the 14th Xisan 
"the first day of the festival of unleavened bread." (B. J. 
6. 3. 1.) And the whole festival was so called, because 
unleavened bread only could be used. The subjoined 
table (see next page) may help the reader to a clearer 
understanding of the subject. 

Let us now turn to the N. T. narratives. All state 
expressly that Jesus arose during the first day of the 
week; that is, some time after the sunset of the seventh 
day, the close of the Sabbath, and the following morn- 
ing. Two incidents are mentioned as occurring be- 
tween His burial and resurrection; (a) certain women, 
when the Sabbath had passed, L e., after sunset of Sat- 
urday, or the seventh day, bought spices to anoint the 
body. (Mark xvi, 1) ; and (b) certain chief priests and 
Pharisees, either during; or after the close of the Sab- 
bath, obtained from Pilate a guard to watch Jesus' 
tomb. (Matt, xxvii, 62.) The time when they made 
the request is called, by Matthew, "the morrow after 
teen paraskeueen." This word signifies preparation, 
(2 Mace, xv, 21, Sept.) Matthew (here) and John 
(xix, 31) use it without any adjunct, "the preparation." 
And John (xix, 42) calls it "the preparation of," i. e., one 
belonging to, "the Jews." Luke (xxiii, 54) defines it by 



Xii THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

day. the day was "preparation day."' In all the six places 
where it is found, it is used of a particular day upon 
which preparation was made for some particular observ- 
ance. In John xix, 14. it is paraskeuee tou pascha, 
••it was the preparation of the passover." This appar- 
ently indicates that it was the day preceding the pass- 
over, i. e., 13th Xisan. And this impression is strength- 
ened by the phrase which refers to the same time, (John 
xviii. 28,) u 'lest they should be defiled, but that they 
might eat the passover." To know the import of the 
first, we must try and find out what ideas John intends 
to convey by the second, phrase. 

The phrase, liina pJvagoozi to paseha, that they 
might eat the passover. if taken here in its restricted 
sense, must, like the equivalent phrases in Matt, xxvi? 
17; Mark xiv, 12; Luke xxiii, 8, 15, be limited to the 
paschal meal. 

"We have already seen that the term, '''passover," is 
used in the 0. T: in a restricted sense, of the paschal 
meal, and in a wider one, of the whole festival, embrac- 
ing all the solemnities connected with the seven days. 
It is used in the Synoptists in the same way: in the 
restricted, in Matt, xxvi, 18, 19; Luke xxii, 8, 15; 
and in the wider, in Matt. xxvi. 2; Luke xxii, 1, 2, 41, 
comp. vs. 43. In which sense does John use it? 

When the Synoptists wrote their narratives, Jerusalem 
was still standing, and all the passover solemnities were 
being observed; and hence, those writers spoke of both 
the whole festival and of its component parts. But when 
John wrote his Gospel, Jerusalem and its Temple were 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 



X111 



in ruins, and the passover could not be fully observed. 
To him all its significance, because fulhlled in Christ, 
had passed away. He, "our Passover, had been slain for 
us and His Supper had taken the place of it, and had 
become the true paschal meal. The Jews, whose deadly 
hostility to Jesus and His people still continued, were 
to him simply "the Jews," and their festivals, "festivals 
of the Jews." He speaks of them by this general term, 
without — unless some special feature had some special 
reference to Jesus' action, as in John vii, 37 — designa- 
ting the particulars. This fact is apparent in all his 
allusions to the festivals (v, 1; vii, 2, 8, 10, 11, 14), and 
to the passover — which term he always uses in its largest 
sense as embracing the whole festival, whether men- 
tioned, or not, by name, (ii, 13, 23; vi, 4; xi, 55; xii, 1; 
xiii, 1,) or simply called "the feast." (iv, 45; xi, 55; 
xii. 12, 20; xiii, 29.) Such is his uniform custom. 
Would he, then, without any intimation of the fact, and 
without giving any reason for the same, depart here from 
this custom? And must not the phrase, en to pascha, 
in xviii, 39, be used in its wider sense? "You have a 
custom," said Pilate, "that I release one unto you 
at (en, in, i. e., during) the passover." This could not 
have been spoken before the passover began. That began 
the 14th Xisan at even. But this was spoken during 
the following morning, and since, during the passover, 
on the 15th Xisan. And does not this fact show that 
John, in his use of the phrase, "eat the passover," 
(xviii, 28,) follows his uniform custom? 

The reason why the Jews would not enter into the . 



Xiv THE HOLY EESUERECTIOX. 

hall was. -lest they should be defile:!." and so be unfitted* 
"to eat the passover." But (a) the defilement which would 
hinder from the paschal meal, would equally hinder 
from the succeeding parts of the festival; and (b) the 
time of this action was proai, very early m the morn- 
ing, and the paschal meal was not eaten until alter 
sunset. If. therefore, this was the morning before the 
passover, they could be ceremonially cleansed before the 
meal. (Lightfoot, m loco.) But they could not be. if 
they had eaten it the evening before — for that would 
be a defilement of the festival then in continuance, and 
this would have kept them excluded from it during 
the remaining days of the festival. 

Do not these considerations make it clear that John, 
in the phrase, "eat the passover,'" uses the term in the 
general sense of the whole festival? This leaves the 
question as to whether the paschal meal had been eaten, 
to be settled by other considerations, such as by (b) 
above, and by the import of the phrase, "preparation 
of the passover." 

"What, then, was "the preparation," which belonged 

to the passover? Does it indicate the time when the 

preparations were made for the paschal meal? Then, 

since it is evident from John's narrative that the term 

embraces the earliest hours of the day, and so must, 

from the Jewish reckoning of time, go back to the night 

before, and since the day preceding the passover was 

the 13th Xisan. it follows that that day (13th Nisan) 

was the day of Jesus' death. But with what fact in the 

narrative can this suggestion be made to agree? Fur- 
©© © 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



XV 



trier, according to the authority of Bochart (Hieroz, 
pg. 567), Reland, Tholuck (in loco), Hengstenberg, 
{Dr. Schatr.) no where, in either the O. T. or Rabbini- 
cal writings, is there any mention of a preparation day 
before the pas sorer, or before any of the Jewish festi- 
vals, save the Sabbath. The day of the passover was 
fixed by Divine appointment on the 14th Nisan. This 
fact was universally recognized. The observance of it 
by the pious Jews at the legal time would be a matter 
of conscience. If, then, John uses the phrase, ''prep- 
aration of the passover," to designate the time before 
it, he uses one nowhere else found. And if he applies 
it to the day itself, he confuses the minds of his read- 
ers, and displaces the Divinely given name for one of 
his own. 

But further, he, in vs. 31 of the same chapter, speak- 
ing of the same day, says: "Epei (conjunction of 
cause, or motive) because, paraskeuee een, it was the 
preparation, and in order that the bodies should not 
remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day (for that 
Sabbath day was an high day), &c. Here, John declares 
"the preparation" to be essentially connected with the 
Sabbath. He uses the same words precisely as those 
used by Mark in the verse where he gives the meaning 
of paraskeuee (xv, 42), and he assigns it as a reason for 
a certain action of the Jews, as Mark does for a certain 
action of Joseph. The object in both cases had respect 
to the Sabbath. Xaked corpses hanging on the cross 
during that day would be a defilement of its sanctity. 
They must hence be taken down before it began. Had 



Xvi THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

this been "the preparation day" of the passover, it, and 
not the Sabbath, would have been assigned as the 
motive for the action of those parties. But it was the 
Sabbath, and a high or double Sabbath, (because falling 
in the festival week, and being the second day of holy 
convocation, it and the Sabbath were coincident), and 
this gave additional emphasis to the request of the Jews. 

It is too large a demand upon one's intelligence to 
ask him to believe that John contradicted himself 
within a few verses. And since the passover and the 
weekly Sabbath did not, that year, fall upon the same 
day, and since, in vs. 31, he conveys the same impres- 
sion of the day as that given in the Synoptists, we are 
bound in all candor to believe that he, in vs. 14, uses 
the phrase, "preparation of passover," as conveying an 
idea perfectly consistent with what he says in vs. 31, 
and also in vs. 42, where manifestly (from the close 
connection of vs. 42 with xx, 1,) it continues to near 
the close of the sixth day of the week. And this can 
only be the paschal preparation day for the Sabbath — 
so the sixth day of the week — or that preparation for 
the Sabbath which fell in the paschal week. And it 
would be perfectly proper for him to designate that 
part of the feast yet remaining, by the whole, especially 
when his object was to show how completely, when 
they should have been engaged in their holy duties* 
they gave themselves up to the work of carrying out 
their wicked designs.* 

[*Tliis is the view of Olshausen, Lange, Norton, Tholuck, 
Wieseler, Andrews (Life of Our Lord).] 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. XVU 

!No mention is made in the O. T. of a "prepai*ation 
day 1 ' for the Sabbath. But such a day is mentioned by 
Josephus: who says that it began at the ninth hour of 
the sixth day, and was sanctioned by Imperial authori- 
ty (Ant, 16. 6. 2.): by the Kabbins; and by the Synop- 
tists (Matt, xxvii, 62; Luke xxii, 54; Mark xv, 42): 
••that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew 
on," because it was the preparation, that is, the day 
before the Sabbath. Mark calls this "preparation day" 
prosabbaton — a term which he uses to explain to non- 
Jewish readers the meaning of the word, proseukee : 
the jyroseukee, preparation, is equivalent to pro sabbat on, 
the fore-sabbath, or the day before the Sabbath. And 
surely, John uses the term in the same way. 

The connection in which the phrase is found is re- 
markable: "It was the preparation of the passover, and 
about the sixth hour." This statement is made in con- 
nection with Pilate's word, "Behold your King!" "Why 
mention these two things together? They have no bear- 
ing upon the conduct of either Pilate or Jesus. They 
are not given, as is the former phrase — "prep, of pass." 
vs. 31 — as a motive for the action of the Jews. It is 
a remark of John, calling attention to the close connec- 
tion between these two facts, taken together, and the 
Jews' rejection of Jesus' Kingship: "Away with Him! 
Crucify Him! We have no King but Caesar." There 
must then be very much more in the phrase, "prep, of 
pass." than merely the getting ready for its celebration, 
provided there be any point in it as connected with the 
solemnity of the crisis. But say that it was the fore- 



Xviii THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

Sabbath of the paschal week, then the passover solem- 
nities were going on. Then it was about the hour 
when the peace- offerings were being voluntarily pre- 
sented. In that hour, when the priests should have 
been presenting the morning sacrifices, and along with 
them the offerings voluntarily presented in token of 
deliverance from Egypt (Ex. xxiii, 15), they were en- 
gaged in the awful and self- destructive work of reject- 
ing their King, sent to them from heaven. 

These are all the places where the word is found. It 
seems certain that in them all it refers to the sixth day of 
the week, corresponding to our Friday. The term is so 
rendered in the Syriac version, and is the name by 
which Friday is generally known in Asia. 

Going backward, we see that the series of events 
from the time of Jesus' death to His betrayal, and from 
the betrayal to the institution of the Supper, is a closely 
connected one, and is confined within twenty-fourh ours. 
This brings us to the fifth day of the Jewish week, our 
Thursday. We have, in connection with the institu- 
tion of the Supper, the following facts: (a) Mark's 
historic narrative, '-After two days was the to pascha,' 
the passover, Tcai ta azuma, and the unleavened loaves. 
(xiv, 1.) Matthew gives Jesus' words spoken at the 
time, "After two days is the passover, and the Son of 
Man is betrayed to be crucified." This anticipation 
was, at that very time passing into history. The 
Sanhedrim's decision not to take Jesus en tee heortee, 
during the festival, was changed by Judas' proffer to 
deliver Him then, if possible. On the morning of the 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. xix 

day when they met at this table, Jesus asked two of 
His disciples to "prepare the passover." And when the 
hour — surely the legal one for its observance — was come, 
He sat down with the twelve, and said, "I have de- 
sired to eat this passover with you before I suffer." 

All the terms used point to, and only to, the passover 
and its accompanying festival. It is called a the pass- 
over and unleavened bread," "the first day of unleav- 
ened bread when the passover must be killed," "the 
feast of the passover" (Matt, xxvi, 2; Mark xiv, 1; Luke 
xxii, 7; John xiii, 1). The whole festival was called 
« e the days of unleavened bread" (Acts xii, 3; xx, 6), and 
the first day of it when the passover must be killed can be 
only the close of the 14th, and the opening of the 15th 
Xisan. jS"ow, could all these writers have had no more 
accurate knowledge of the passover than to have used 
these terms inaccurately ? Was not Jesus thoroughly ac- 
quainted with every fact belonging to the passover, the 
legal time of its celebration included ? Did He not ob- 
serve every previous one in the legal time and way? 
Would He deviate at this great crisis of His history? 
He had ever obeyed all the Divine requirements ; would 
He disregard any of them now? There is not one single 
fact or proof furnished by any writer to show that He 
delayed the observance an hour. All is conjecture. 
And though some able scholars have supported the 
idea that He anticipated it, yet the objections to this are 
too weighty to allow it to be generally received by those 
whose only dependence for knowledge on the subject is 
the New Testament alone. It is brought forward to 



v 



XX THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

remove the supposed discrepancy between John and 
the Synoptists; but even could it do this (which it 
cannot), it would do so at the expense of Jesus' uniform 
conduct towards the Divine enactments, and of His 
own direct statements concerning this special feast. 

Within twenty-four hours of this sunset Jesus was 
in the tomb. He died at 3 P. M. of the day which 
began at the previous 6 P. M. (generally). The twen- 
ty-four honrs beginning at 3 P. M. 14th Nisan (the 
time of the beginning of the two evenings during 
which the lamb was slain), would not close until 3 
P. M. 15th Nisan, at which hour He died — thus dying 
within the hours of the true legal passover day. This 
well agrees with Pilate's word, spoken before 12 M. of 
that day, "I release one unto you en to pascha," in, or 
during the passover, i. e., while the passover festival 
was going on. And, further, the paschal meal and 
festival began really at the opening of the 15th Nisan, 
i. e., at the close of sunset of the 14th. And as the 
preparations for both meal and festival were made 
during the 14th Nisan, it was called the first day of 
the festival. (Ex. xii, 15, 19, 20. Lightfoot, Temp., 
Ser. xii, § 1; Peruehin, i, 14; Andrews' Life of Our 
Lord, pg. 434.) This popular usage appears in the 
Synoptists. The phrase, "prepare for Thee to eat the 
passover," was spoken on "the day when the passover 
must be killed," and on "the first day of the festival of 
unleavened bread." 

The conclusion to which all these facts bring the 
mind is that John and the Synoptists agree as to the 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



xxi 



time, and that the Synoptists intend to tell us that 
Jesus observed, at this time, as always, the passover at 
the regular time and in the regular way. And this 
was the only course consistent with His uniform cus- 
tom, and with His avowed purpose to fulfill the law.* 
His death, hence, occurred on the 15th Kisan, but 
within the twenty-four hours, commencing 3 P. M. on 
the 14th. The paschal lamb was slain at the begin- 
ning. Jesus, the true Passover, during the continuance, 
•And died at the close of, these twenty-four hours.** 

The following table (see next page) presents the sub- 
ject in one view. 

One question remains. How do these computations 
of time accord with the words of Jesus, in Matt, xii, 40: 
*'The Son of Man shall be three davs and three nights 



[*The remark in Ex. xii, 22, "No one go out of the house un- 
til the morning," referred only to the night of its first observance, 
for which a special reason was given. There is nothing in the 
O. T., nor in Jewish writings, to show that it was ever regarded 
as an essential feature of the feast. Sec Otho's Lex. Art. Pascha.] 

[**It may be added that ihe Jews had repeatedly attempted to 
seize Jesus on Sabbaths, or festival days. See Luke iv, 26-29; John 
vii, 30, 32 (see vs. 14), 37, 44, 45; x, 22, 39.] 

On the supposition that this was the 14th Nisan, the disciples' 
conjectures as to the reason for Judas' sudden departure are 
easily explained. (John xiii , 28.) Preparation of food was allowed 
on the loth Nitan (Ex. xii, 16), and the purchase of it as well, un- 
der certain restrictions. (Tholuck, in loco ; Wiesler, Chron., 3, 44, 
366; Lntharjit, in loco, ii, 286. Mishna.) Had this been the evening 
of the 13th Xisan, no necessity to go out to buy provisions, for he 
had the whole day before him, and, for the same reason, he was not 
likely to seek the poor at that hour of the night. But in the 
paschal night, when the great Temple gates were opened at mid- 
night, to begtfn early preparations lor the offerings of Chagigah 
which were not voluntary, but due, it was quite natural to suppose 
that Judas was going to make such preparation. And equally to 
suppose that he was going to give something to the poor, gathered 
around the Temple to seek help frpm the charitable. (Eidenshiem.) 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



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THE HOLY EESUEEECTIOX. XX1U 

in the heart of the earth?" The present discussion 
is not concerned with the meaning of the phrase,"heart of 
the earth:" which more probably means the grave — as 
analogous to Jonah's living sepulchre, which he calls "the 
belly of Hades," Jon.ii, 2, Heb., than Hades: but with the 
time. What are we to understand by "the three days 
and three nights?" Plainly, they must agree with 
Jesus' own later words, elsewhere spoken, concerning 
the same fact. He says (John ii, 19), "in three days I 
will raise it (i. e., his body) up." "After three days I 
will rise again," (Mark viii, 31); "be raised the third 
day" (Matt, xvi, 31; Luke ix, 22); "the third day 
shall rise again" (Matt, xvii, 23; xx, 19; Mark x, 34). 
These words were spoken before His death, and in all 
His later utterances the word is, "the third day." And 
that the impression left upon the mind was resurrec- 
tion, not after three full days, but in or after the third 
day, is evident from the remark of His enemies on the 
day after His death: "He said, after three days I will 
rise again;" and that of His friends on the day of His 
resurrection: "He is now in the third day since these 
things were done" (Luke xxiv, 21, Grk). This, also, is 
the interpretation of His words given by the angel to 
the women at the tomb, "the third day rise again." and 
by Himself to His disciples, "rise from the dead the 
third day" (Luke xxiv, 7, 46). And both Peter and 
Paul declared that "He arose the third day." (Actsx, 20; 
1 Cor. xv, 4.) There can be no doubt, alter the exam- 
ation of all these passages, that Jesus intended to arise, 
and arose in, or during, the third day; and that He 



Xxiv THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 

Himself regarded His resurrection on that morning 
as being on the third day; and that the angel speaking 
on that morning recalled, as then fulfilled, His own 
words, "after three days rise again." Friday, the day 
of His death, was one day. From 6 P. M. of that day 
to 6 P. M. of Saturday was two days, and from 6 P. M. 
Saturday to 6 P. M. of the first day of the week was 
three days. And this computation was in exact accord 
with the Jewish mode of reckoning: "a day and night 
together make up a ?iuchtheemeron, a night-day, and 
any part of such period is counted as the whole." 
(Jerusalem Talmud. See also Gen. xl, 13, 20; 1 Sam. 
xxx, 12, 13; 2 Chron. x, 5, 12; Hos. vi, 2.) 



THE HOLY KESUBBECTION. 



25 



PROLOGUE. 



£yrps|HE story of Jesus' resurrection is one of exquis- 
S^l^i * te P atn05 ai1 ^ beauty, and of the highest impor- 
^S^a tance. The fact was God's open declaration of 
^J^S? Jesus' Divine Sonship, and His seal of approba- 
* tion upon all that He had suffered, done and 
said. It is for man a most elevating fact and a Divine 
assurance that he can safely commit all his interests 
into Jesus' hands. It is a study worthy of our most 
careful and prayerful thought. And if this be given 
we will find, in the rich fruitage which it brings, an 
ample payment for the time and labor bestowed. 



Section I. 



Facts Occurring on the Morning of Jesus' 
Resurrection. 

Matt, xxviii, 1-15; Mark xvi, 1-11; Luke xxiv, 1-12; John xx, 1-18. 

And the women also which came with Him from 
Galilee .... beheld the sepulchre, and how the body 
was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and 
ointments; and rested the Sabbath day, Jewish, accord- 
ing to the commandment. 

And when the Jewish Sabbath, i. e., Saturday even- 
ing, April s t7/. A. D. 30, after 6 P. M., was past, 
Alary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and 



26 



THE HOLY RESUBBECTIOiT. 



Salome, bought sweet spices, that they might come 
and anoint Him. 

And in the end of the (Jewish) Sabbath, very early 
in the morning, while it was yet dark, as it began to 
dawn towards the first day of the week — i. e , LoroVs 
Day, April 9 th, A. D. SO — came Mary Magdalene, and 
the other Mary, the mother of James, and Salome, and 
Joanna, and certain other women with them, to see the 
sepulchre, bringing the spices with them. And they 
said among themselves, who shall roll us away the 
stone from the door of the sepulchre? 

And behold there was a great earthquake: for the 
angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came 
and relied back the stone from the door, and sat upon 
it. His countenance was like lightning, and his rai- 
ment white as snow. And for fear of him the keepers 
did shake, and become as dead men. 

And they, the women, came to the sepulchre at the 
rising of the sun. And they found, when they looked, 
— they saw — that the stone was rolled away, for it was 
very great. 

Then she, Mary Magdalene, when she seeth the 
stone taken away from the sepulchre, runneth, and 
cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom 
Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken 
away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not 
where they have laid Him. 

And they, the other women, entered into the sepul- 
chre, and found not the body of the Lord J esus. And 
it came to pass, as they were much perplexed there- 
about, behold, two men in shining garments, were sud- 
denly present. (Greek.} One of them, a young man, 
they saw sitting on the right side, clothed in a long 
white garment. And they were affrighted, and bowed 
down their faces to the earth. And the one angel, or 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 



27 



both, answered and said unto them, Be not affrighted: 
fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, 
which was crucified. Why seek ye the living among 
the dead? He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. 
Come, see the place where they laid Him — where the 
Lord lay. Eemember how He spake unto you when 
He was yet in Galilee, (Matt, xvi, 21; xvii, 23; Mark 
viii, 31; ix, 31; Luke ix, 22; John ii, 22,) saying, 
The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of 
sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise 
again: (and they remembered His words:) and go 
your way quickly, and tell His disciples, and Peter, 
that He is risen from the dead, and behold, He goeth 
before you into Galilee: there shall ye see Him, as He 
said unto you: lo, I have told you. 

And they went out quickly from the sepulchre, with 
fear and great joy; and they fled from the sepulchre, 
for they trembled, and were amazed, and did run to 
bring His disciples word, neither said they anything to 
any man; for they were afraid. 

Xuw when they were going, behold some of the 
watch came into the city, and showed unto the chief 
priests all the things that were done. And when they 
were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, 
they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, Say 
ye His disciples came by night, and stole Him away 
while we slept. And if this come to the governor's 
ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. So they 
took the money, and did as they were taught: and this 
saying is commonly reported among the Jews until 
this day. 

Meanwhile, because of what Mary Magdalene had 
said, Peter, therefore arose, and went forth, and that 
other disciple, and ran — came — to the sepulchre. So they 
ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun 



28 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



Peter, and carne first to the sepulchre. And he stoop- 
ing down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying, 
yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter follow- 
ing him, and stooping down he beheld the linen clothes 
laid by themselves. And he went into the sapulchre, 
and seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was 
about His head, not lying with the linen clothes, but 
wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in 
also that other disciple which came first to the sepul- 
chre, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew 
not the Scripture, that He must rise again from the 
dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their 
own home — Peter departed, wondering in himself at 
that which was come to pass. 

Jesus' First Appearance. 

But Mary, who had followed the two from the city 
remained, and stood without the sepulchre weeping: 
and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the 
sepulchre, and seeth two angels in white, sitting, the 
one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the 
Body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, 
Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, be- 
cause they have taken away my Lord, and I know not 
where they have laid Him. And when she had thus 
said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, 
and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, 
Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, 
supposing Him to be the gardener, saith unto Him, 
Sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell me where thou 
hast laid Him, and I will take Him away. Jesus saith 
unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto 
Him, Eabboni, which is to say, Master. Jesus saith 
unto her, Touch me not: for 1 am not yet ascended to 
my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



I ascend unto my Father and jour Father, and to my 
God and your God. 

Thus it was that when Jesus was risen early the first 
day of the week. He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, 
out of whom He had cast seven devils. 

Jesus' Second Appearance. 

And as they, the other women, went to tell His dis- 
ciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And 
they came, and held Him by the feet, and worshipped 
Him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid; go 
tell my brethren, that they go into Galilee, and there 
shall they see me. 

And they returned from the sepulchre, and told all 
these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. It 
was — Mary Magdalene and — Joanna, and Mary the 
mother of James, and other women that were with 
them, which told these things unto the apostles. And 
their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they be- 
lieved them not. 

And she — Mary Magdalene — went — came — and told 
the disciples — them that had been with Him, as they 
mourned and wept, that she had seen the Lord, and 
that He had spoken these things unto her. And they, 
when they had heard that He was alive, and had been 
seen of her, believed not. 

All the writers state that Jesus died on the "day of 
preparation." That, as we have already seen, was 
the day before the Sabbath, answering to our Friday. 
And the great majority of able critics* have reached 
the conclusion, after the most thorough investiga- 
tions, critical, historical and astronomical, that this 
day was April 7th, A. D. 30. Jesus was buried 



[* Winer, Wieseler, Capri, Godet, Pressense, &c] 



30 THE HOLT JJESUBRECTION. 

ojysios genomenees, late in the evening. The Hebrews, 
like the Greeks, had '-two evenings." (Ex. xii, 6.) The 
first one, called by the Greeks, delta prooia, the little 
evening, began at the 9th hour, i. e. 3 P. M., and the 
second one delia opsia, real sunset, began, at this sea- 
son, about 6 P. M. (Jos. B. J. 6, 9, 3.) Opsia, opsia 
hora was also the name of the first of the four watches 
into which the night was divided, and extended from 
the close of the second evening to 9 P. M. And a 
comparison of all the other places where it is found: 
(Matt, viii, 16; xiv, 15, 23; xvi, 2; xx, 8; xxvi, 20; 
Mark i, 32; iv, 35; vi, 47; xi, 11; xiv, IT; John vi, 
16; xx, 19,) in all of which, (except Mark xi, 11, and 
John xx, 19, which have ousees, and John vi, 16, which 
has egeneto,) it has genomenees: with these in Matt, 
xxvii, 5T, and Mark xv, 42, which latter has hedee y 
now already, shows that the"second evening" was rapidly 
approaching when Joseph began his labor of love. 

With the close of this day the Sabbath, which con- 
tinued from sunset to sunset (Lev. xxiii, 32), began. 
During its sacred hours the disciples rested according 
to the commandment. And diagenomenou tou sabba- 
tou, the Sabbath having passed, being completely end- 
ed — this is the force of the second aorist — (f ae verb is 
used in the T. only of time), i. e., after sunset of 
our Saturday evening — Mary Magdalene, Mary, the 
mother of James, and Salome eegorasan (first aorist), 
bought — not u had bought" E. Y. — sweet spices. Some 
of the women had returned from the sepulchre early 
enough on Friday evening to prepare spices and oint- 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 3l 

ments before the Sabbath began: but, perhaps, be- 
cause lingering too lono- at the tomb, or too much ab- 
sorbed in grief, they had not made their purchases before 
the Sabbath began. This they now did, and were ready 
to go with the other women early in the morning to 
anoint the body of Jesus. These women certainly did 
not anticipate any resurrection. 

This morning is called, by all the writers, mia toon 
sabbatoon, one of the week. The word sabbatoon^ 
after numerals, marked the days of the week, which, in 
the Talmuds, are written: the first, second, &c, day in 
the Sabbath i. e., (week). (Lightfoot, Hor. Heb., Matt, 
xxviii, 1.) And Luke's dis tou sdbbatou (xviii, 12), 
shows the same use of the word. But this is the first 
time that the phrase, mia sabbatoon, is found in the 
N". T. And its use by all the evangelists here, and 
also its use in Acts xx, 7, and 1 Cor. xvi, 2, indicates 
that it was invested with a new and peculiar signifi- 
cancy. This seems to be specially marked in Mark's 
change of phraseology, from mias sabbatoon, (in vs. 2,) 
where he follows the J ewish custom, to protee sabbatou, 
the first Sabbath of all, (in vs. 9) — a new Sabbath 
day, plainly indicating that this is the first day of a 
renewed week, a new beginning of time. And, hence- 
forth, this phrase, mia sabbatoon, is used in the N. T. 
to designate that day, which is called, in Rev. i, 7. 
"the Lord's Day." 

This day must not be confounded with the Sabbath. 
The Scriptures furnish not the slightest ground to 
warrant the idea that that day has been abrogated, or 



32 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

its observance changed from the seventh to the first 
day of the week. It remains firm in the place in which 
G-od originally put it. And when Jesus comes again — 
so prophecy proclaims — it will again be observed as 
originally designed. That day belongs to the old, the 
"first day" to the new, creation, and new order of things. 
This day is the first of that creation, because it is the 
day of Jesus' resurrection — the beginning of ascension, 
and of the descent of The Spirit also, and formation of 
the Christian Church. The memory of God's rest-day 
must ever be to the devout believer most precious, and 
the sacredness of one-seventh portion of time be ever 
regarded by him. And it is from no disregard of that 
day that he regards this. But this day is associated with 
his redemption. It is embalmed in his sweetest and 
tenderest associations and memories. He, as did the 
apostles and early church, lovingly and sacredly observes 
it holy unto the Lord. 

The point of time when the women started upon 
their errand of love is variously described. Matthew 
says (xxviii, 1), opse de sabbatoon tee epiphooskousee 
eis mian sahbatoon. Opse is an adverb of time. It 
has, in classical writings, two significations; "late:" 
opse heelikias, late in life; opse tees heemeras, late in 
the day — and this is the meaning in Mark xi, 19, 20; 
xiii, 35; (b) with the genitive, "after," opse toutoon, 
after them, opse musterioon, after the mysteries. 
("Wetstein, in loco.) It is connected with the genitive, 
sahbatoon, in this place, and according to classical 
usage, signifies "after" — not in the end or (E. V.) but — 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 



33 



"after the Sabbath." The Sabbath, which ended with 
the sunset of our Saturday, had fully closed. The 
ojpse de sab. of Matt, if it stood alone, might indicate 
the period between sunset and, say the close of business 
hours on Saturday. That would be equivalent to 
Mark's "the Sabbath being past" (xvi, 1). But it is 
modified by tee ejpiphooskousee, the coming on. The 
verb signifies to grow light upon, to dawn upon. It is 
used in classical Greek to express the coming on of 
day. Luke uses this word, applied to the natural day, 
to express the civil day of the Jews, which began at 
sunset, (xxiii, 54.) Matthew here uses it in its proper 
sense, The Sabbath had so long passed that the day 
was beginning to break eis, towards, mian toon sabba- 
toon, the first, or first day of the week. Mark says, 
lian prooi tees mias sabbatoon. Prooi is an adverb of 
time. It is the name given to the third watch of the 
night* (Jos. Ant. v, 6, 5; Mark xiii, 35); and also to 
that one of the three divisions of the dawn, which in- 
cludes the time while it was yet dark, but when one 
could distinguish blue from white. The lian, very, 
very early, shows that it was yet dark, though about 
day-breaking. This agrees with Matthew's word, and 
also with Luke's batheos orthrou, deep twilight. The 
two words, taken together, signify the time at, and 
immediately after, daybreak, while one still needs a 

[*The first was opsin, from twilight to 9 P. M. ; the second, 
mesonukton, midnig7it, from 9 to 12 M. ; the third, alektorphonia, 
cock-croiriny, from 12 to 3; and the fourth, prooi., from 3 till 
daylight."! 



3i THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

light: and this is in harmony also with John's prooi, 
skotias eti ousees, early, it being yet dark. 

In that latitude, at that season of the year, the first 
faint streaks of light appear across the eastern sky be- 
fore 4 A. M. It was, therefore, as early as this hour, 
on this morning, when certain women, who, as the city 
gates" were not opened until after daylight, probably 
spent the night outside of the city, started towards 
the garden of Joseph. The object of their visit — to 
see the sepulchre, (Matt.), and to embalm the body of 
Jesus, (Mark, Luke) — and the peculiarly solemn cir- 
cumstauces under which they had become acquainted 
with the owner of it, on the previous Friday evening, 
forbade all idea of their being intruders in entering 
upon those private grounds. 

One of these women was Mary of Magdala, called 
Magdalene. She was one whom Jesus had "healed of 
evil spirits and infirmities." And the emphasis upon 
the fact — "out of her Jesus had cast seven devils" — 
shows, not impurity of life, but a demonical possession 
of extraordinary malignity. The mental and spiritual 
disease, the divided consciousness, the fearful frenzy 
and wretchedness of despair to which it had subjected 
her, made hers a case of peculiar sorrow. Her grati- 
tude, when relieved, knew no bounds. She followed 
Jesus with unswervering loyalty and attachment, fully 
used time, influence, money (of which she seems to 
have had plenty), in His cause, accompanied Him on 
His last journey to Jerusalem, stood, with other women, 
by Him during all the hours of His agony on the cross, 



THE HOLT EESTJKRECTION. 35 

followed His Body to the tomb, and now, at this early 
hour, is on her way thither. Thongh John mentions 
her only, he does not exclude others. For in vs. 2 he indi- 
cates, in her use of the words, "we know, &c," that she 
was not alone. And the Synoptists give us the names of 
her companions. One was Mary, the wife of Cleopas? 
mother of James the Less and Joses, and aunt of Jesus. 
Because, perhaps, their husbands was dead, she and 
her sister had lived together. For, as early as in the 
second year of Jesus' ministry they were regarded as 
one family. (Matt, xii, -47; xiii, 55.) This, with the 
glimpses of her at the cross, burial, and here on this 
mornino-, are the only sights of her that are given. 
Salome, wife of Zebedee, and mother of James and 
John, who had also witnessed the crucifixion, and 
Joanna, wife of Chusa, Herod's steward, whom we find 
among the ladies which ministered unto the Lord. 
(Luke viii, 3,) were also in this company. With these 
were certain others,* whose names are not given. These 
all were on their way, theorai, to view with attention, 
the sepulchre. And that they might complete the 
work of anointing, done so hurriedly on the Friday be- 
fore, they carried with them the costly spices which 
they had bought and prepared. 

Though ignorant of the seal and guard, they knew 
that a great stone was at the door of the tomb. And 
being unattended by men, they were asking themselves 
the question, Who shall roll us away the stone? When 



[-The words, "certain with them," are genuine in Luke, vs. 10, 
but not in vs. 7.] 



36 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

they started, everything at the sepulchre was as it had 
been since the guard had been first placed theie. Noth- 
ing had occurred to disturb it, or the Boman sentries, 
as they paced their rounds before it, or sat around its 
entrance, engaged in talk or pastimes. It was very 
early in the morning (Mark), just as day was beginning 
to dawn (Matt.), and while the darkness had not yet 
been chased away- (John), when the women started. 
As they went on, and the clay was beginning to break, 
suddenly there was a flashing light, and seismos megas, 
a great shaking of the ground — seen and felt (so think 
we from Matt's behold, and from the angels empha- 
sized ye, v, 5), by the women. They knew not the 
cause: an angel descending from heaven: nor the 
effects. When Jesus died, gee esaiththai, the earth 
shook. But here, gee is not mentioned. The shaking 
was great, but confined to the tomb, and ground imme- 
diately around it. It was caused — as the gar in Matt, 
vs. 2, shows — by the angel of the Lord, descending 
from heaven, and shaking and dislodging; the stone 
from the mouth of the tomb, into which it was closely 
fitted. He ermenon, lifted it away from the sepulchre 
(John) — thus bursting Pilate's band, and seal which 
none dare touch under penalty of death. Then ajjokek- 
alesthai, he rolled it hack from the door, outside, 
(Matt.) and sat upon it in triumph. This action was 

[* John's "when it was yet dark" must refer to the time of the 
women's starting. For. he immediately adds, blepsei, she "seeth" 
the stone. &c. This refers to the time when Mary was near the 
tomb, and this required clear daylight. And this is exactly accord- 
ant with Mark's "they came to the sepulchre at the rising of the 
sun. 1 '] 



THE HOLT RESUBKECTTON. 37 

God's answer to the question, "Who shall roll away 
the stone for us?" It was His call to all to look, and 
enter into the already empty tomb. It was the voice 
of judgment upon Jesus' foes, the assurance of His 
resurrection and exaltation, and of the gift of all power 
to Him on earth. And along with this voice was the 
proclamation of Jesus' victory over death, given bv the 
saints, whose graves had been opened at His death, 
now going forth from them, and appearing, the first 
fruits of His resurrection, to many in the Holy City. 
(Matt xxvii, 51-53.) 

The angel's — not morphee, form, but idia — appear- 
ance, was like lightning, and his clothing was white as 
snow. The guard were paralyzed with fear. They did 
not, could not, at once, flee, for they had become as 
dead men. 

The shaking ceased. The light-flash was not re- 
peated. The morning stillness resumes its wonted 
sway, disturbed only by the morning chorus warbled, 
full-throated, by the birds. The sun had just sent out 
his first blush over the skies, a herald of his coming. 
The world was at that hour when all the softer shades 
of color strive to convince one how much lovlier they 
are than the azure of full day. Every bough and 
blade of grass was glittering with dew. It looked, 
while the life and stir of this new day began, as if the 
whole earth had just been made fresh that morning. 
And so, in the sublimer sense, it had. As the full 
golden lustre streamed over the edge, and was lighting 
up mountain and plain, the women, whom the earth- 



38 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

quake's noise may have stopped, moved on. As the 
sun came rolling up in majesty, one central spot of 
ruby fire, they, yet at a distance from the sepulchre, 
but near enough to see it on the gently-sloping opposite 
height, a?iahlepasthai, they looked up, and theorousin, 
saw with amazement that the closely-fitting stone 
(John) had been taken away from the horizontal door. 
This was to Mary Magdalene a dreadful shock. With- 
out going on, or waiting to examine further, she turned 
around, left the company, and ran back as rapidly 
as she could to the city. 

Let us, while she is returning, accompany the other 
women to the sepulchre. They saw the stone, but not 
the angel sitting upon it. The terrified soldiers did 
not molest, perhaps not even notice, them. . They 
eiselthousai, entered into the sepulchre, but found not 
the Body of the Lord Jesus. It was gone. In the 
midst of the great perplexity and alarm, caused by this 
discovery, they were startled by the sight of the angel, 
who looked like a young man. He was clothed in a 
long white garment, and was sitting on the right side 
of the sepulchre from the entrance. Presently two 
men, epesteesan, were suddenly present* — so the verb 

[*Luke mentions two angels ; Matthew and Mark only one. 
This canon applies : u He who speaks of two, includes also the one; 
he who mentions only one, does not deny the two." Mark says he 
was sitting; Luke speaks of them as standing. But the Greek 
word, in its appropriate and established usage, is to be suddenly 
present. (Compare Luke ii, 9; Acts xii, 7.) In Matthew, the an- 
gel, while still apparently outside, addressed the women, in 
Mark and Luke the conversation takes place inside the sepulchre ; 
and Matt, xxviii, 8, implies coming out. in Scripture, angels 
appearing in the form of men are often spoken of as they appear. 
See Gen. xviii, 2, 16, &c. 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 39 

here, as in Luke ii, 38, signifies. Both had shining 
garments. And as the women were afraid, and bowed 
down their faces to the earth, one, or both of them, 
said to them: "Fear not ye. I know that ye seek 
Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified." This, the 
name nailed, in derision, on His cross, and the one 
tKat was then in their consciousness, was the first name 
given Jesus after His resurrection, by an angel, and is, 
hence, the name by which He was then known in heaven. 
You seek Him here, in His death and disgrace. But. 
^'why seek ye zoonta, the living" in the profoundest 
s ense, the Life (John i, 4), Him whom the angels 
called Lord — "why seek ye the living among the dead? 
He is not here. He is risen. Remember how He 
spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, saying, 
The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of 
sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise 
again." (Matt, xvi, 21; xvii, 23; Mark viii, 31; ix, 31; 
Luke ix, 22; John ii, 22.) To these words of Jesus, 
the angels add their own: "Come, see the place where 
the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell His disciples, 
and Peter" — these He, in His word to Mary, called 
my brethren — "that He is risen from the dead. And 
behold, proagei* He goeth before you like an invisible 
Shepherd before a visible flock, into Galilee, and there 
will He gather together that flock, the nucleus of His 
church, which was scattered by the smiting of the 



[*The verbs, expressive of motion from place to place, are 
never used of Jesus after His resurrection. See Stier's exhaustive 
<-ritirisni. Words of the Lord Jesus, viii, pgs. 99, 100, Edinburgh ed.] 



40 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

Shepherd. (John x, 4.) This did He say to yon while 
on His way to Gethsemane. (Matt, xxvi, 31, 32; Mark 
xiv, 27, 28.) All this have I now told yon. Do yon 
believe these mighty words of life, of peace, of joy?" 

In that message the women were included, for they 
were not to be mere messengers. And that grand and 
solemn re-nnion in Galilee was not intended to exclude 
special appearances in Judea; for there Jesus showed 
Himself often to the disciples. But it is not improba- 
ble, but that, if they had believed this message and 
acted upon it, Jesus would not have showed Himself 
at all in Jerusalem — at least, not until after the great 
meeting in Galilee. 

This startling apparition and these words made, upon 
the women, a very profound impression. They departed 
quickly out of the sepulchre,* and fled from it, trem- 
bling, and filled with the complex sensations of amaze- 
ment, joy and fear. 

It seems that, soon as they started, they separated into 
two groups. Of the group, mentioned by Mark, it is 
said, tromos, a trembling of body, hai ekstasis, an 
ecstacy, eiclie, held them. They were too terrified to 
say anything to anyone by the way. One, or more of 
them, seems to have gone to that company of disciples, 
two of which went that same day to Emmaus. Salome r 
whose name is not mentioned among those who told the 
disciples, went, perhaps, to her own home, to tell the 

[*B. L. and Cod. Sin. in Malt. vs. 8, read apelthousai (which is» 
adopted by Teschendorf and Alford), instead of exelfliousai, of 
Text. Recpt., which Lachman retains. Mark, whose reading here 
is undisputed, ha. exelthousci.] 



THE HOLY EESUEEECTIOX. 41 

mother of our Lord. To this group Jesus did not 
appear — so it seems — but to the other group, the one 
mentioned by Matthew, and of which it is said, " they 
departed phobee, with fear, Jcai charas megales, and 
with great joy, and did run to tell the news, and. give 
the angel's message to the disciples." 

By the time, or soon after the time, when the women 
had left the sepulchre, the guards had so far recov- 
ered from the terror which had seized them, that they 
could, and did, abandon their post. For a short time 
the sepulchre was entirely deserted. Presently two 
men came up, one far in advance of the other. These 
were disciples. How came they there? To answer this 
question, we must return to Mary Magdalene, whom 
we last saw running in breathless haste towards the 
city. 

When she had reached it, she went first, pros, to 
Simon Peter, who may have been staying at the 
house of a friend, and then pros, to John, who dwelt in 
his own house (John xix, 27). The repetition of the pros 
shows that she went successively to each of the two- 
To each one she told in breathless haste, her imagina- 
tive fears: "They," i. e., the enemies, "have taken 
away," i. e., violently, "the Lord out of the sepulchre, 
and we," i. e., the women, "know not where they have 
laid Him."* 

[*Luke (xxiv, 9-12) seems to blend Into one narraiive the 
statements of the women to the disciples, and that of Mary Mag- 
dalene to Peter and John. According to him the statements of 
the other women, as well as those of Mary M., seemed to all "as idle 
tale-." and not worthy of credit. And this was the motive prompt- 
ing Peter to go to the sepulchre, as brought out in the 'them" of 



42 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



This was astounding news to the two men. Peter, 
told first, started first. But John soon caught up with 
him, and the two were running houmou, together* 
They erchonto, were coming with the feeling of inex- 
pressible expectation — for this is the idea expressed in 
this imperfect tense of duration. The speed was in- 
creased with every step. They were soon running with 
all their might. John, more nimble-footed, outran 
Peter, and was first at the sepulchre. Bending forward 
hleepei, he sees the linen clothes, in which the Body 
had been wrapped, lying down. Friends would not' 
have left, nor enemies so carefully arranged, them. 
Fear least the Body had been stolen, gives place to 
profound amazement and awe. And while he gazes, 
held back by his contemplative nature from going 
in, Peter reached the spot. He, too, bending forward** 
bleepei, sees the linen clothes. This did not satisfy 
his more practical nature. He felt impelled to go in 5 
and investigate more closely. How true these touches 



the 12th verse. Luke says that the two Marys, Joanna and the 
others told these things to the apostles. But he does not say when, 
nor that they all told them at the same time. And there is no 
difficulty in believing that the other apostles, when they heard 
the story, and Peter, when he heard it, did not believe it, and that 
the motives prompting Peter to go were incredulity, and the pur- 
pose either to verify or overthrow the statement, concerning the 
empty tomb and risen Jesus.] 

\*Houmou signifies, "in company" (John xxi, 2), but not always 
so (John iv, 36). It may here signify either in company, or, at the 
same time.] 

[**Luke xxiv, 12, is omitted in Cantab., and some Latin and 
Syriac versions, and is rejected by Teschendorf. But it is in Sin. 
Vat, Alex., and, except the above, in the entire body of Mss., and in 
most copies of ancient translations ; and is retained by Alford, 
Lange, Meyer, and most critics.] 



THE HOLY KESERRECTTOX. 43 

to their respective characters! Theoorei, he sees, then 
gives attentive and prolonged examination of, and reflec- 
tion upon, the facts. He saw that the stone was rolled 
away, allowing free access to the tomb; that the grave 
was empty; that the linen grave clothes had not been 
carried away, nor left in any confusion, but laid away in 
an orderly manner; and that the napkin that had been 
about Jesus' head was not lying with the linen clothes, 
but was lying, carefully folded together, in a place by 
itself. All this he saw. But he saw not what it signi- 
fied; "and departed, wondering in himself at that which 
had come to pass." 

After Peter had come out of, but before he departed 
from, the tomb, John, emboldened by his example, 
went into it. His minute and vivid description of 
the interior, re-called and recorded many years after- 
wards,shows how profound was theimpression made upon 
his mind. Peter, evidently, had told him of the ab- 
sence of the Bo ly, and of the orderly arrangement of 
the grave clothes. But he had not fully credited him, un- 
til he had himself gone in. Then he saw and believed. 

These facts were signs of resurrection, trophies of 
power over death, indications that its conqueror had 
done a glorious work, had cut the gates of brass and 
bars of iron asunder, had come out into light, and had 
left these clothes behind Him as a symbol that He had 
entered into a state where they were no longer needed. 
He had left them, and the form of sinful flesh, behind. 
The rolled away stone was evidence of the annihilation 
of the counsel, and frustration of the league of this 



44 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION/ 



world. The orderly arrangement of the grave clothes 
was convincing proof that the Body had not been re- 
moved by either friends or foes. This holy order indi- 
cated a deliberation, a composure, and a ruling of the 
highest, clearest, calmest presence of mind which for- 
bade that idea. And the calm spirit that reigned there 
should, and doubtless did, calm their perplexed and 
agitated minds. But because eedeisan, (eidoo), they 
discerned — comprehended — not, as yet, the Scriptures, 
that He must rise again from the dead (John xx, 9), 
they understood not the significance of the facts. The 
rolled-away stone, the empty tomb, the neatly folded 
clothes, were no proofs of resurrection to them. John 
saw, and episteesen, believed — in the lower, but not in 
the profound and lofty sense in which he commonly 
uses that word. He believed that the Body was gone. 
The emphasis on anasteenai show that this is the power 
of the word "believe" here. He did not believe in the 
fact of Jesus' resurrection, for he discerned not, that 
Scripture had said, "He must rise from the dead." But 
he did believe — and this is contrasted with what he 
did not believe — that the Body was gone, and had not 
been taken away by violence, so not by human hands. 
He had not looked for resurrection, but for the re- 
appearing of Jesus as the Glorified One. And now he 
believed that by some Divine and glorious rapture He 
had been suddenly taken to heaven. And among others, 
was not the correction of this notion, one reason why 
Jesus, almost immediately after, said to Mary: "I have 
not yet ascended, but say to My brethren, I ascend?" 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 



45 



Jesus' First Appearance— to Mary Magdalene. 

After Peter and John had left for their homes, Mary 
— who had followed after them, from the city — still 
lingered at the tomb. The sun was np when she left 
for the city, about a mile distant. The time occupied 
in going: to the homes of Peter and J ohn, in the coming 
out, and in the examination they made, could scarcely 
have been less than two hours. ~We should judge that it 
must have been 9 o'clock, or after, when we find Mary 
estakeetai, standing in front of the tomb, as if riveted 
to the spot. The blooming of the flowers, the caroling 
of the birds, the air and sun of that Easter morning 
were nothing- to her. The blinding tears are coursing 
down her cheeks. Again and again, she bends forward 
and looks into the tomb. Angels had appeared and 
announced Jesus' birth. .Now, for the second time, 
they appear and announce His resurrection. One had 
rolled away the stone, and sat upon it ; and he had been 
seen by the soldiers. Two had appeared to the women 
in the sepulchre, and had announced the fact of Jesus' 
resurrection. Two are now seen by Mary, sitting, the 
one at the head, and the other at the teet, where the 
Body of Jesus had lain. They ask her a question, but 
give her no reply. She theorei, gazes at them. But 
such was her mental condition, that the sight makes 
iittle impression upon her. What to her was all their 
splendor! She only sought, desired, thought of her cru- 
cified Lord. His Body was gone, and the feeling of 
utter goneness was in her heart. 



46 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

To her, in her great agitation, looking in and out of the 
sepulchre, whose emptiness was re-echoed in her heart,, 
the angels addressed the question, "Woman, why weep- 
est thou?" To this she replied, "Because they have 
taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have 
laid Him." Having said this, estraphee, she turned 
round, as if struck by a sudden change in the appear- 
ance of the angels, and Jesus stood before her. She 
beholds a Man, but knows not who it is. Because He 
was in hetera morphee, another form? 'No. Because 
the change in Him was so great that she did not 
recognize Him, as we, after a long separation from a, 
friend, do not, when we meet, fully recognize him at 
first? "No. But because resurrection was far from her 
thoughts; and because she sought the dead, not the 
living, Jesus. "Woman," said He, "why weepest thou? 
whom seekest thou?" This was Jesus' first resurrection 
word, and it was addressed to one earnestly seekfng 
Him. Still she recognized Him not. "This," she sup- 
posed, "is Joseph's gardener." She addressed Him as 
such: "Sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell me 
where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away" 
— as if every one would, without the mention of His 
name, know who was the object of which her heart 
was full. She had been tested by the angels, and by 
the Lord Himself. The time had come for her to be 
initiated into the mystery. And Jesus, by that most 
personal thing in human manifestation, the sound of 
the voice, and by calling her by name, gave her the 
strongest proof of His personal identity, and by tone,, 



THE HOLY EESUKRECTIOX. 4:7 

manner and word, expressed all that He was to her, 
and all that she was to Him. She had sought the dead 
Body. But, "Mary!" scattered all clonds and tears. 
That voice and word revealed all in unison with all in 
her heart. It was the only note to which she could 
respond. She saw the living Jesus before her. His 
glorified life had, indeed, begun. And her whole soul 
went out in her answer, "Rabboni, Master!" 

Then something in her motions drew from Jesus a 
seeming repulse, and one very chilling to her ardent 
affection: mee mou haptou,* touch me not. Was her 
ardent affection too human, and too far below true 
spirituality. It may be so. Or was she to be taught that, 
liencefonli, she must not know Christ after the flesh, 
but only as in His new relation to her, as supremely, the 
Son of God? Or, His different actions may be explained 
by the different light in which He is presented in 
Matthew and in John. In Matthew, where He is the 
Divine Man, Christ, in the midst of earthly glory and 
royalty in Israel, we have no ascension, only a meeting 
with the disciples in Galilee. There resurrection is 
the end of the triumphant journey. But in John, 
where He is the Divine Son in the midst of the 
heavenly family, we have no place of meeting men- 
tioned. His word is, "I ascend." Glory and ascen- 
sion are the end. He is going to the Father, and res- 
urrection is the way to Him. This might explain why 



[*}fee tangou, "touch me not." Critical authorities perfectly 
establish the correctness of this reading. And most earnest 
Labors have been put forth to discover tho reason for Jesus' word.] 



48 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

He forbade Mary, but permitted the other women, to 
touch Him, were it not for His word to Thomas, which 
we have in John. 

But why not accept the reason which Jesus Himself 
gives: "1 have not yet ascended; but go tell My breth- 
ren, "I ascend." I now ascend. And why not at once 
admit, since soon after He allowed the other women to 
touch Him, that in the very brief interval He had 
ascended to His Father, and had returned? 

This was a transition time. His was the Body of resur- 
rection — and so spiritual — but not yet of glory. It, in 
certain respects, was in harmony with the present order 
of things. But resurrection was the first fruits of new 
spiritual human life, of glorified humanity, and entrance 
into the heavenly state. So it was the beginning of 
ascension, which was the entrance into the heavenly 
sphere. 

The verb used to describe the appearances during 
this transition state — itself a mystery of which we 
have no experimental data — are (a) apantaoo, to "meet 
suddenly" in the way (Matt, xxviii, 9); (b) paristeemi, 
"was present" (E. Y., showed Himself) (Acts i, 3); 
(c) phranoo (Mark xvi, 9), and phaneroo (Mark xvi, 
12, 14; John xxi, 1, 14), "appeared'" and (d) oraoo. 
optomai (Matt, xxviii, 7 ; Mark xvi, 7 ; Luke xxiv, 34). 
This last verb is used to express "the theophanies," and 
"the appearances of angels," and of Moses and Elias on 
the Mount. It is also the word which Jesus used in 
the message which He sent, through the women, to the 
disciples. In Acts ix, IT; xxvi, 16 — in the account 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 49 

of Paul's conversion — it, in the one place used by, and 
of, Himself, expresses Jesus' appearances from heaven. 
And does not His use of it there, and here on this, the 
morning of His resurrection, and after He says to 
Mary, "I ascend," justify us in saying that He actually 
did, between His appearance to Mary, and to the 
women, ascend invisibly, as afterwards He ascended 
visibly, to heaven? And further, does not the use of thes 
verb, by Luke (Acts i, 3, ix, xxvi), to describe His 
appearances during the forty days, and also those to 
Paul, distinctly intimate that every time He appeared 
to the disciples during the forty days, He, on each occa- 
sion, left the invisible world? And is not this implied 
in the other verbs used, and also in the phrases, kai 
idontes, they having seen, before the proselthoon, He 
came (Matt, xxviii, 17, 18), and theoorai estota, they see 
Rim standing, before the eelthen, He came (John 
xx, 14, 19, 26)? The exegesis forces on me the convic- 
tion that Jesus, immediately after He spake to Mary, 
ascended, and appeared before the Throne; and then 
returned, and appeared to the women on the way. And 
this is in accord with His word, "Ye shall see Me, be- 
cause I go to My Father" (John xvi, 16), which teaches 
that they would not obtain a sight of Him, after His 
death, until He had firs*; ascended to heaven. The life 
He then had points beyond this world to a higher 
sphere. The ascending, involved in His resurrection, 
began with it, and on that day. He was, to use His 
own expression,"ascending." And His, "while I was yet 
with you" (Lk. vs. 44), shows that He lived on earth no 



50 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

longer. He was no more with them. He belonged to 
a higher sphere of existence, and at times, only, mani- 
fested Himself here below. And, for some reason, not 
made known to us, none could touch Him before He 
had first ascended to the Father; after that they could. 

Though Mary was not allowed to touch Him, she 
was entrusted with the first resurrection message: "Go 

o 

to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My 
Father, and your Father, and to My Lord, and your 
Lord." By the other women Jesus sent the message, 
"Go tell My brethren that they go into Galilee, and 
there shall they see Me;" and this tells of resurrection, 
and of a subsequent meeting on earth. But the mes- 
sage through Mary speaks not of resurrection, as 
though this is necessarily implied, but of ascension; 
and this tells of a future meeting with His disciples in 
Heaven. 

Jesus' Second Appearance— to Certain Women. 

While Mary — to whom Jesus, when He was risen 
early the first day of the week, appeared first* — was on 
her way to the city, Jesus, who had ascended and had 
returned, appeared to that group of women, which, in 
the way of righteous obedience, was hastening into the 
city to deliver the message which they, with the others, 

[*The last twelve verses of Mark are wanting in the Sin. Vat. 
Alex. Meyer and Teschendorf reject, Alford brackets, and Tre- 
gellcs, Lachmann and Lange retain, them. Nothing new has been 
added on either side by the late writers on the question. The 
reader can see the reasons for and against their retention, in Lange 
and Alford, in loco.] * 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 51 

had received.* His first word was Chaireie, All hail! 
They instantly knew Him, held Him by the feet, and 
worshipped Him. His "be not afraid" quieted their 
minds. Then He sent a message, by them, to His 
brethren, that He would meet them in Galilee. 

The Flight of the Guard— The Results from it. 

"While these women were going to the city, the guard 
were going also. Soon as they had recovered from the 
consternation, caused by the earthquake and the ap- 
pearance of the angel, they lied precipitately from the 
tomb. Some may have started before the others. Or, 
if together, they seem to have been separated in their 
flight. Some of them went, perhaps, to the barracks. 
Others, after reaching the city, went directly to the 
chief priests, by whom they had been stationed at the 
tomb, and told them of the earthquake, angel, stone 
being rolled away, empty sepulchre, women — of all the 
things that had occurred. 

The intelligence astounded, appalled, the priests. The 
soldiers could not report the fact of resurrection. But 
this would instantly flash across the minds of the 
priests. They had told Pilate that Jesus had said, be- 
fore His death, that He would rise again. The sol- 
diers' report would at once suggest to them the truth 
of His saying, now passed into reality. Hence the 
consternation must have been very great, the fact por- 

[*The words, "As they went to tell the disciples word," Matt., 
vs. 9, are wanting in Sin. and Vat., and are rejected by all critics. 
The rejection does not, however, atiect the sense of the passage., 



52 THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 

tentous, the inquiry, "what to do," very pressing and 
perplexing. The facts reported by the guard could not 
be invalidated nor denied. Nor dared they allow the 
facts to be reported to Pilate, for he would at once 
order an official investigation — a thing that must, at 
all cost, be prevented. Priests and elders at once as- 
sembled. The whole matter was fully canvassed — 
sumhouliorb laboontes — and the following conclusion 
reached as the only way, since they must deny the fact 
of resurrection, out of their difficulty: Admit that the 
Body was gone, but affirm that it had been stolen by 
His disciples, while the guard were sleeping. This 
story, to be plausible, must come from the soldiers. 
The sleeping at the post, and the allowing such a theft, 
was a military crime, punishable by death. To save 
the soldiers from this fate, Pilate, if necessary, must 
be propitiated. To get the soldiers to tell the lie they 
must be bribed. This was the counsel agreed upon. 
The treacherous Judas, who voluntarily sold himself, 
accepted thirty pieces of silver. But the soldiers would 
not sell themselves at so cheap a rate. Only by large 
bribes, coupled with the assurance that if the thing- 
came to Pilate's ears, either officially or otherwise, "we 
will persuade him," i. e., give him large bribes, "and 
secure you," could they be induced to tell the lie. 

This story bears all the marks of improbability upon 
its face. Were the soldiers awake? Then, unless phys- 
ically overpowered, they would not have dared to allow 
any man to disturb the tomb. Were they asleep? How 
knew they, then, that the disciples had stolen the Body 



THE HOLY KESUKKECTION. 53 

away? Could the disciples, in their then perplexed, be- 
wildered state of mind, have attempted a thing requir- 
ing such nerve, and such composure of mind? That 
were a psychological impossibility. And yet the 
scheme of the priests and elders was carried out suc- 
cessfully. The matter never came to Pilate's ears, and 
was soon forgotten by the soldiers. But the story was 
commonly reported, perhaps believed, among the Jew r s. 
The whole transaction shows, on the part of the priests, 
an extraordinary degree of depravity; on the part of 
the soldiers, the powerlessness of prodigies to change 
the will, and keep people from doing wrong; and on the 
part of the Jews, the obtuseness of willing incredulity. 

First Information to the Company of the Faithful. 

Both Peter and John, when they returned to the 
city, went to their own home. Why they did this, and 
gave not at once the facts which they knew, does not 
appear. While they had been making their investiga- 
tions, however, that group of women, in which were 
Joanna, and Mary, thb mother of James, to which 
Jesus had not appeared, but which had been bidden by 
the angels to tell the disciples and Peter, that Jesus 
had risen from the dead, had reached the city, and had 
gone at once to the Eleven. This designation of the 
apostles does not necessarily imply that all were pres- 
ent. (Oomp. Mark xvi, 14, with John xx, 24.) Peter 
and John were not. To those of them present, and to 
those with them, they told what they had seen and 
heard. This fact occurred before the midday. (Luke 



54 THE HOLT UESUBBECTIOX. 

xxiv, 22, 23.) They told the same story also "to all 
the rest," L <?., to that company of disciples, of which 
the two Einmans disciples, but no apostles, as it seems, 
constituted a part. To one company their words 
seemed hoosei leeros, lj non-sense, superstitions talk; 
to the other company as a matter of incredible aston- 
ishment. (Luke xxiv, 11, 23.) Subsequently, but still 
before the midday, the other group of women, that to 
which Jesus had appeared, designated, so it seems, by 
the phrase, "the other women that were with them,'' 
(Luke xxiv, 10), went to the apostles, Peter and John 
being stili absent, and told their story, and delivered 
Jesus' message. But no credit was given to their 
words. Subsequently, Mary Magdalene went to the 
apostles with her message. Peter and John we:e 
present. They had told their story, which had rilled 
all eyes with tears, and all hearts with grief. Mary 
found them weeping and mourning because, along with 
other causes of grief, the Body was gone. She told 
them that she had seen the Lord, and delivered the 
message which He had sent. But they believed not 
that He was alive, and had been seen by her.* 

A brief resume may be helpful to the mind, in 
seeking to keep before it the order of events. Peter 
and John were the first apostles that learned of the 

[*It is clear that the group, of which Joanna was one, went at 
once to the Eleven. But it is not clear which next proceeded, the 
other group, or Mary. The narratives intimate no haste in Mary's 
movements after she had seen Jesus. Some time elapsed, proba- 
bly, before she delivered her message. It seems to me the more 
probable that she delivered her message after the second group 
had delivered theirs. 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 00 

empty grave, and absent Body. After their examina- 
tion they went home, and it was some time before they 
went to the other apostles. ^ The group of women to 
which Jesns did not appear, hastened to the Eleven, 
Peter and J ohn being absent, and told them their story 
touching the open and empty grave, and the angels, 
and their message. They then went to the company of 
which they and Cleophas were a part, and told them 
what things they had seen and heard. Meantime, Mary 
Mao-dalene went to the Eleven — Peter and John being 
present, and having already told them what they knew — 
and told them that she had seeu the Lord. Subsequently 
the group which had seen Jesus went to the Eleven 
and told their story. There were two companies of the 
faithful. Both were acquainted with fact of the empty 
grave, and one with the report of the resurrection. The 
impression made upon the minds of these companies was 
quite different. The words of the first women to the 
Eleven were not credited at all, until subsequently con- 
firmed by Peter and John. Then the company was tilled 
with grief because the Body was gone. But neither the 
words of Mary, nor of the second group of women, were 
believed at all. The other company, because after-exam- 
ination by some of their members confirmed it, believed 
the first group of women's words, as to the empty grave. 

This was the situation at midday — for less time is 
not sufficient for all occurrences. At that hour there 
was no one, save the women, unless it was the chief 
priests and elders, who believed that Jesus had arisen. 
And the mental condition of the apostles was such that 



56 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 



nothing but the clearest, fullest and most satisfactory 
evidences could convince them of the fact. 



Jesus' Third Appearance-to Two Disciples on 
their way to, and at, emmaus. 

Jesus' Fourth Appearance-to Peter. 

Mark xvi, 12, 13; Luke xxiv, 13-35; 1 Cor. xv, 5. 
Afternoon of the first Lord's Day. 

After that He appeared in another form unto two Ol 
them, as they walked, and went into the country. And 
behold two of them went that same day to a village 
called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about three 
score furlongs. And they talked together of all these 
things which had happened. And it came to pass that 
while they communed together, and reasoned, Jesus 
Himself drew near, and went with them. But their 
eyes were holden that they should not know Him. And 
He said unto them, What manner of communications 
are thesj that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are 
sad? And the one of them, whose name was Cleophas. 
answering, said unto Him, Art thou only a stranger 
in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are 
come to pass there in these days? And He said unto them, 
What things? And they said unto Him, concerning Jesus 
of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and 
word before God and all the people: and how the chief 
priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned 
to death, and have crucified Him. But we trusted that 
it had been He which should have redeemed Israel : and 
besides all this, to-day is the third day since these things 
were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company 
made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre. 
And when they found not His Body, they came, saying, 
tl* at they had also seen a vision of angels, which said 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



57 



that He was alive. And certain of them which were 
with ns, went to the sepulchre, anH found it even as the 
women had said: but Him they saw not. 

Then He said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart, 
to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not 
Christ to have suffered these, and to enter into His glory? 
And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, He ex- 
pounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things con- 
cerning Himself. 

And they drew nigh unto the village whither they 
went: and He made as though He would have gone fur- 
ther. But they constrained Him, saying, Abide with 
us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. 
And He went in to tarry with them. And it came to 
pass, as He sat at meat with them, He took bread, and 
blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes 
were opened, and they knew Him ; and He vanished out 
of their sight. 

[And that He was seen of Cephas. The Lord is risen 
indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.] 

And they — Cleophas and his companion — said one 
to another, Did not our heart burn within us while He 
talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us 
the Scriptures? 

And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jeru- 
salem, and found the Eleven gathered together, and them 
that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, 
and hath appeared to Simon. And they told unto the 
residue what things were done in the way, and how He 
was known of them in breaking of bread: 

Neither believed they them. 

The only appearances up to midday were those to Mary 
Magdalene and the women. Their statements were not 
believed; and the reports about the resurrection were not 



58 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

generally known. The two appearances, mentioned in 
this section, were at Emmaus, and in Jerusalem, and late 
in the day of this, the first Lord's day, April 9th. A. D. 
30. Emmaus was nearly eight miles, or a two hours and 
more walk from Jerusalem. When the two disciples ar- 
rived there the sun was not far from settincr It could not 
have been earlier than 5 o'clock. If two and one-half 
hours were spent in the walk, it must have been between 
2 and 3 P. M. when they left the city. At that hour, 
then, "the rest" of "our company" to which these two 
belonged, had no knowledge of the fact that Jesus had 
arisen. And if in the meantime, Mary and the women 
told the disciples, their word was not believed. At 
2 P. M. the only facts believed by the disciples were 
these: an empty sepulchre, the Body gone, the grave- 
clothes orderlily arranged. Save to those to whom He 
had appeared, none believed, perhaps had not even a 
thought of, Jesus' resurrection. 

"We return to the narrative, whose charming simplicity 
stamps it as truth. At about 2 P. M. on that day a name- 
less man* and Cleophas — who were ex outoon, of them, 
i.e., "of the rest," followers, but not apostles of Jesus — 
left Jerusalem. This Clopas must not be confounded with 
Cleophas. The latter is Aramaic; and was the name of 
the husband of Mary, the mother of James and Joses, 
and who was at this time, probably, dead. The former 
is Greek, and was the name of this follower, whose birth- 
place or home, say some of the Fathers, was Emmaus. 

[*Epiphanius (Adv. Haes., § 223), implies his belief that Na- 
thaniel was the nameless one of Emmaus' journey.] 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 59 

This village was sixty stadia, or nearly eight miles west 
of Jerusalem. It stood on the border of Benjamim, on 
the slope of vine-clad hills. The way was over hills and 
through vallies, barren for some distance out of the city, 
and after that glowing with the verdure of spring. The 
white and red blossoms of the almond trees, the tender 
buds of the olive and vine, the flowers throwing off their 
fragrance, the songs of birds, the picturesque and varie- 
gated scenery, and the historical incidents and facts 
whicli made some of the spots famous, all combined to 
make the walk a delightful one. But all this could not, 
on this day, interest these two, drive away the deep sad- 
ness of disappointed hopes, nor satisfy those who felt that 
they had lost Jesus. All hope, as their going away 
shows, had been given up, One thought occupied their 
hearts. '-They talked together of all those things which 
had happened.*' To them, thus talking to each other, One 
drew near, whom they did not know. What sympathy 
could He have with their sorrow? Curiosity, not interest, 
they thought, prompted the approach. He saw that 
logous antih.illete, they were casting words, not hostile, 
but friendly, between themselves, each one giving 
his own views. They were investigating the facts about 
certain occurrences. Sad they looked. Sad they were. 
The One asked what was the subject of discussion and 
the cause of grief. And His frank and friendly manner 
penetrated and opened their hearts. 

Je-us ever delights in reality and truthfulness of 
heart, and He found them here. "Art Thou," Cleophas 
said, "only paroikois, a sojourner in Jerusalem, that Thou 



60 THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 

art ignorant of the events of the past few days?" This 
question shows that they recognized not that face and 
form. Mary supposed Him to be Joseph's gardener. 
These two took Him to be a stranger. Had He made 
Himself known before He had, Out of the Scriptures con- 
vinced them as to the facts, His appearance wonld have 
overpowered them, and made them incapable of calm 
investigation. For this, or for some other reason, He ap- 
peared to them in ''another," i. e., different form from 
that in which they had last seen Him. One visible, but 
not recognizable, to them incredulous as to, and not ex- 
pecting, His resurrection. "Their eyes were holden." 
Jesus' manifestations seem to have been conditioned by 
the corresponding capacity in those to whom they were 
granted. These two, it seems, were not ready for the 
disclosure. Hence "their eyes were holden" by Him, so 
"that they should not know Him." Without either af- 
firming or denying, He answers their question by asking 
another, "What things?" 

In their answer they pour out all their feelings. They 
frankly own to their expectations, and profound disa- 
appointment and sorrow. They designate Jesus by that 
phrase — Jesus of Nazareth — so prominent in the post 
resurrection narratives. "He was a prophet" (Matt, xxi, 
11, 46; John iii, 2), they said, "mighty in word and 
deed, before God and all the people." His followers, 
and we among them, elpisomei (imperfect), did hope 
estin ho melloon lutrousthei, that He it is who was 
about to redeem Israel — i. e., bring in that spiritual 
redemption that was promised by the prophets. (Luke 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 61 

i, 68, 69, 75; ii, 38 ; xxii, 5.) "What a sad letting down, 
giving away, dying ont of hope, in their words, u ho_pos, 
and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him 
to be condemned to death, and have crucified Him," 
which precede, "But we hoped, &c. And besides all this, 
triteen tauteen hemeran agei, this is, or, He is in, the 
third day since these things were done." This remark 
evidently refers to some well-known anticipated event 
which was to occur in the third day. They evidently 
understood Jesus' words, "after three days I will rise 
again," to signify "rise in the third day." Most of that 
day had passed. He had not risen, so far as they knew. 
His death had shaken, the failure of his promised resur- 
rection had annihilated, their faith and hope in Him as 
the promised Messiah. "But" — they go on to say — "cer- 
tain women of our company, which were early at the sep- 
ulchre, greatly astonished us by their report. They found 
not the Body, but saw, so they say, a vision of angels — 
whether they really saw angels, or whether it was only 
aptasiatb, a vision, we cannot say — which said that He 
was alive. Then certain men with us, i. e., of our 
company, disciples, but not apostles, went to the sepul- 
chre — a visit to the tomb, not elsewhere spoken of — "and 
found it even as the women had said, hut Him they savi 
not." 

They had nothing more to say. Then the Unknown 
speaks, as the Teacher dealing with the thoughts and 
affections of men — then as always according to the con- 
dition and need of those addressed. "When they were 
in sorrow, He soothed and refreshed; when in doubt, 



62 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

convinced; when in unbelief, rebuked and enlightened. 
So now, having rebuked their unbelief, He, as the Teacher 
of men, led them through the Scriptures, till their light 
and warmth warmed their hearts. They needed, and He 
gave, restoration of soul. 

Passing by the reports, and the recent facts, He goes 
to the Scriptures, and in their light shows the signifi- 
cance, and gives explanation,, of the historical events of 
the Friday before. In His exposition He shows Him- 
self the mighty Master of Scripture rebuke and consola- 
tion, and lifts them out of themselves and away from 
the present time: "O anoeetoi, O mm, wanting under- 
standing, unreceptive on the intellectual side. Why? 
Because of hradeis tee kardia, unsusceptibility of heart. 
The two words comprehend the whole man, and express 
its want of susceptibility. Discouragement of heart 
comes from a want of understanding of the mind ; and 
this again, from a lack of light in the heart. Your want to 
trust in the eyes of yourselves and of others, in the words 
of angels and of men. You do not understand, because 
your heart hesitates to take in all the Scriptures, to be- 
lieve in what they say, despite appearances. Your 
faith being one-sided, is powerless to kindle light in 
the darkness of the soul. Had you inwardly known, 
and experienced the truth of the prophetic word, you 
would not have been in perplexity. Its light would have 
gone from the heart to the head. A knowledge of, and 
confidence in, God's word, are the all important facts. 
This is the great word to us, and to all: "Slow of heart 
to believe all that the prophets have spoken." 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 63 

Havincr gently chid them, Jesus went on to show the 
moral necessity of ton Cfiriston, the Christ being a, suff- 
ering Christ. These things which yor, mention as the 
ground of your doubt are necessary marks of the true 
Messiah. Had He not thus 'suffered, He could not be 
the Christ, nor enter into His glory — -the glory that be- 
longs to Him essentially, and is the due reward of His 
works. The two stand in indissoluble connection. (1 
Peter i, 11.) The sufferings involve the consequent resur- 
rection. And had you understood the Scriptures you 
would have learned from the empty grave that the glory 
had begun.. 

Wherefore? and how? must the Messiah suffer these 
things? are questions which would naturally arise in 
their minds; and in His words they have the answer. 
The whole Scripture lay clear before His mind. Be- 
ginning at Moses, He explained calmly, patiently, fully, 
consecutively, the types, the history, the prophetic words ; 
pointed out the relation and bearing of each to all, and 
the scope and progressive development of all the great 
whole to the Christ; showed most clearly "in all the 
Scriptures," ta, the things — not parts of Scripture, but 
"the things" — "concerning Himself." This was a moral 
demonstration. But it had all the weight and force of a 
mathematical one. Every statement was free from the 
slightest discoloration of sophism or unreality. Every 
link was perfect, and was accurately and logically joined 
to its fellows. The first link was joined to the eternal 
purpose of God, as revealed. The last one attached itself 
to Jesus of Nazareth. The argument was faultless and 



64 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

living. The conclusion was irresistible. The inexor- 
able logic of facts fastened on the mind the unchangable 
conviction that the Messiah "must be crucified, and must 
rise again from the dead the third day," and that Jesus 
of Nazareth was this Christ. And His method is the 
right one for those, who, with hearts glowing with the 
white light of truth, would dissipate darkness and doubt?' 

As He led them through the spice groves of prophesy, 
and opened ear and heart to the orchestral tones of the 
promises, what floods of light streamed into the mindl 
What joy filled the heart! They saw that Jesus was 
the Christ, and that His sufferings and subsequent resur- 
rection were alike an inevitable necessity, and that a s 
certainly as the sufferings had been a fact, so surely must 
the resurrection be a fact. The Scriptures opened 
up and understood, had corrected mistakes aud wrong 
impressions, had given an intelligent judgment as to 
the case, had dissipated their gloom, had calmed their 
hearts. Yea, these filled with the marvellous energy of 
His love, burned within them, while He had talked to 
them by the way. 

Unexpectedly soon they reach the village. He, being 
a stranger, had no right, uninvited, to cross the thresh- 
hold of their house. Prosepoieito, He added to go 
on* and He would actually have gone on had He not 

[*This verb was used in classical Greek to pretend. And Rob- 
insoD gives this definition of it here. But the primary meaning is 
add to without any idea of seeming. It is contrary to all the facts 
of His precious life, and not in keeping with the dignity of His 
character to say that Jesus pretended to do what He had no inten- 
tion of doing. The primary meaning, "He added to," makes good 
sense, "He added to go on."] 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 65 

been constrained by an urgent appeal to stay. He was 
ready to say "Good bye." But they were reluctant to 
be separated from Him, to whom they had been so closely 
drawn, and who had made their walk, which had begun 
in sadness, to end in joy. Parebiasanto, they compel 
(Luke xiv, 23; Acts xvi, 15) Him to tarry with them: 
"Abide with us; for it is towards evening, and the day 
is far spent." 

Accepting their invitation, He went in with them. 
Xo word was spoken — so it seems — after they entered. 
They sat down to supper. He acted as the host. He 
took the bread, blessed, brake and gave to them. Sud- 
denly their eyes were opened — the same verb used to 
express the opening of the understanding (vs- 45), and 
Jesus' opening of the Scriptures (vs. 32). That which 
had "holden their eyes" (vs. 16) was removed. They 
discerned Jesus before them in His resurrection Body. 
They know Him — a fact showing that though immense- 
ly exalted by resurrection, His identity had not been 
impaired. Then — so soon as clearly, fully recognized 
— aphantos egeneto ap' autoon, He was invisible to them. 
His appearing, His allowing Himself to be recognized, 
and His sudden disappearing, were all mysterious. But 
though mysteries, they were facts; facts explained by 
this, that the Body in the course of, and on its way to, 
glorification, was completely controlled by the Spirit. 

This disappearance, so sudden, so unexpected, must 
have produced a startling effect upon the two. They 
must have o-iven each other an amazed look. The recog- 
nition of Jesus was instant and sure. Bur, the impres- 



66 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

sion, which the discovery of this fact made upon them 
was, for a moment, obscured by the powerful impression 
which J esus' words had made upon them : "they said one 
to another, Did not our heart burn within us while He 
talked to us by the way, and while He opened to us the 
Scriptures." 

It was now near, or fully, dark. But the two, "rising 
up" at the same time from the table, and from the grave 
of doubt and despondency, hastened back to the city with 
the amazing tidings that Jesus was alive. 

Some place the appearance to Peter before, some after 
that to "the two" at Emmaus. I believe it was after; and 
this is my ground for this conclusion. Peter was the 
only one specially named by the angel in his message to 
the women. But that word related to an appearing in 
Galilee. This message he could not have received until 
after his own visit to the tomb. It must have been near 
noon when this and the other thing's were told the Eleven. 
And the words were to them as idle tales, and they be- 
lieved not. ~Nor is there any intimation that any apostle 
saw Jesus before the two left for Emmaus. Jesus joined 
them soon after starting, and was with them till near 
evening. There seems no place in the narratives for this 
appearing until after Jesus left a the two" at Emmaus. It 
occurred, we think, during the two hours in which they 
were returning to the city. And this agrees with the fact 
that the first intimation to the rest, of an appearing to 
Peter, was given late in the evening. As to the place 
of meeting, and as to what passed between them, the 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 67 

Scriptures are profoundly silent. It may have been in 
his own home, or while he was wandering about in soli- 
tude, agitated by conflicting hopes and fears. But it 
seems that Peter then received pardon as a believer, and 
that thus the way was cleared for him to receive restora- 
tion to the apostleship afterwards. (John xxi.) So soon 
as the interview ended, Peter hastened at once to the 
a] ostles, and told them the joyful news. 

This reanimated them. In the morning they were a 
scattered, in the evening, brought together by this news, 
a gathered flock. Happy, indeed, was that company. 
Soon as the two entered, their ears were greeted with, 
'•the Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto 
Simon." Their word confirmed the fact of resurrection. 
But their story was not believed. Understanding not 
the properties of the resurrection Body, it seemed to 
them incredible that Jesus could have appeared to them 
♦ towards evening" at Emmaus, and immediately after, 
between then and their prompt return to the city, He 
could have appeared to Peter in the city; and have done 
this long; enough before this meeting, for them to have 
been gathered together to rejoice at the glad news. 
They believed that He had appeared to Peter; but they 
also believed that it was not Himself, but His appari- 
tion that had appeared to the two in the village. (See Acts 
xii, 15.) And this we infer from the fact that when 
tie did appear in their midst they were terrified, and 
c upposed that they had seen a spirit. 

To that appearance we now turn 



68 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



Jesus' Fifts Appearance-the First Appearance 
to the Apostles. 

Place, Jerusalem; time, evening of the first Lord's Day, April 9th, 

A. D. 30. 

Mark xvi, 14^18; Luke xxiv, 36-49; John xx, 19-23; 1 Cor. xv, 5. 

After that He appeared unto the Eleven — was seen 
of the Twelve. 

Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of 
the week, when the doors, were shut where the disciples 
were assembled, for fear of the Jews, and as they sat at 
meat — the Eleven, and them that were with them — and 
as they — the two disciples from Emmaus — thus spake 
(see close of last section of the narrative) came Jesus 
Himself, (Jesus appeared) and stood in the midst of 
them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 

Effect upon the disciples.] But they were terrified 
and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. 

Jesus' words to them.] And He said unto them, Why 
are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your 
hearts ? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I my- 
self: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and 
bones, as ye see me have. And when He had thus spoken 
Shows His hands and feet.] He showed unto them His 
Eats before them.] hands, and Hi? feet, and His side. 
And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, 
He said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they 
gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and of an honey- comb. 
And He took it and did eat it before them. 

Impression of all this upon the disciples.] Then 
were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. 

And He upbraided them for their unbelief and hard- 
ness of heart, because they believed not them which had 
seen Him after He was risen. Then He said unto them, 
Jesus speaks to them again.] These are the words which 
I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



69 



must be fulfilled which were written of Me — concerning 
Me — in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the 
Psalms. And ye are witnesses of these things. And be- 
hold 1 send the promise of My Father upon you, but tar- 
ry ye in the city ot J erusalem until ye be endowed with 
power from on high. Then saith He unto them again, 
k ' Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent Me, even 
so send I you. And when He had said this, He 
breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the 
Holy Spirit. Whose soever sins ye remit, they are 
remitted unto them: and whosesoever sins ye retain 
Breathingupon them Holy Spi- \ they are retained. Then 
rit opens their understanding. \ opened He their under- 
standing, that they might understand the Scriptures, 
and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it be- 
hoved the Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the 
third day: and that repentance and remission of sins 
should be preached in His name among all nations, be- 
ginning at Jerusalem.* 



The husteron, afterivards, of Mark, vs. 14, refers to 
meta de touta, of vs. 12 and to the proton, first, vs. 9. 
Mark's, as John's, first one was to Mary ; the second one 
to the two on their way to Emmaus; the third was this 
one in the evening, which is also narrated by Luke and 
John. When John says this is now the third time 
Jesus showed Himself to His disciples (xxi, 14), he 
passes by the appearance to Mary, which he also fully 

[*We have put in vss. 44-49. of Luke. But we ought to remark 
that the repetition of "He said," vss. 44, 46, suggests that Luke here 
combines, perhaps, the last sayings of Jesus without respect to the 
exact time when spoken. Part were clearly spoken on the first 
day. But part may not have been spoken until the day of Ascen- 
sion. (' ee Godet or Luke.] 



70 THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 

gives, and refers to the two previous appearances to the 
apostles on the first, and succeeding, Lord's Day even- 
ings. And again, this appearance to the Eleven was 
really the fifth one on that day. The first one was at 
the sepulchre to Mary; the second one to one group of 
women immediately after, while they were on their way 
from the sepulchre to the city; the third one to the two 
on the way to, and at, Emmaus; the fourth one to Peter 
in the city, perhaps at the tomb; and this, the filth one. 
was in the evening;, and in a house in the citv. 0 usees 
oun opsias tee hemeera ekehiee tee sahbaton kai ton 
tlieeron kekleis nenon. "being evening therefore on that 
day the first of the week, and the doors being shut, &c/* 
John says the doors were shut for fear of the Jews. In 
that room were* "the apostles," called by Mark "the 
Eleven," by Luke and by Paul (1 Cor. xv, 5), "the 
Twelve" — "and others with them." (Lukexxiv,34.) These 
were those whom Jesus had drawn and united to Him- 
self. Recognizing Him as the Messiah, and Son of God r 
they had a most profound reverence for His Person, and 
implicit confidence in His salvation. From them He 
chose His apostles, and thus laid the foundation of His 
church (Eph. i, 20). They had been witnesses of His 
works and words, of His life and death, and were, as 
those who were to His witnesses to the world, now to 
become witnesses of His resurrection. The apostles 
primarily, but not alone. For it is most important to 

[* "Assembled,"' in John xx. 19, is a recent insertion. It is omitted 
by Lachniann, Teschendorf, Tregelles, Wescott, Lange, Afford and 
Godet.] 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 



71 



notice that the narratives suggest no distinction, as made 
by Jesus, between the apostles and the "them that were 
with them," in any word He spoke, or any act He did, 
at that time. In these each and all shared equally. 
Xothing conferred upon the apostles was withheld from 
the rest. And in John xiii, 16-20, Luke xxii, 16, the 
same comprehension is seen. 

This seems to have been the first time that they gath- 
ered together since they had been scattered,panic-strickeu, 
by Jesus' arrest and condemnation. Up to that day it 
had been all bewilderment, helplessness, uneasiness of 
spirit. Their courage had been somewhat revived. All 
who could be trusted, and collected, were folded together 
as the family of God. They had met to talk about the 
perplexing events of that day. Some rays of light were 
struggling with the darkness. They had these un- 
doubted facts: the sepulchre was open, the guard had dis- 
appeared, the grave clothes were in orderly arrangement 
in the tomb, and the Body was gone. They had the 
marvellous experiences of some women of their number. 
But these seemed to them incredible. To this was ad- 
ded Peter's extraordinary statement that Jesus had 
actually appeared to him. The two from Emmaus had 
entered in the midst of the intense excitement caused 
by Peter's story, and increased it by their own still more 
extraordinary recital. The seeming impossibility of 
two appearances succeeding each other in places so far 
apart, cast in their minds a doubt over this story. Eager 
they were, but from the testimony thus far adduced, una- 
ble to believe in the actual restoration to life of the dead 



72 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

Redeemer. To this uncertainty add the fear of the Jews, 
and the darkness of the future, and you can readily see 
in what a perplexed and agitated condition of mind they 
were. To a company so honest, truth-loving, anxious 
for, and ready to welcome the right evidence with joy, 
and yet frightened and skeptical, nothing but the strong- 
est evidence would answer, to dissipate doubt, and give 
intelligent and calm conviction. If J esus was risen, Re 
must of necessity have the stigmata of the crucified. 
Nothing short of this evidence could satisfy their reason- 
able doubts. To them this evidence was given. And 
it was so victorious over all doubts and disbeliefs, that 
they became the heralds of His resurrection. 

The first maniiestation of Jesus' glorification was His 
resurrection. By the Spirit He had offered His flesh — 
"which He gave for the life of the world" — which had 
held Him bound to this world, and like the veil of the 
Temple, had separated Him from His God. (Heb. x, 20; 
ix, 9.) By the death, which had accomplished atonement, 
His Body had been broken, and thus the total fulness 
of The Spirit which He, at His baptism, had received 
to dispense, could flow out. He had, in dying, laid down 
His sin-burdened, suffering, sorrowing life — that life 
which, in the present condition of man's nature, had its 
determination by the state in which man lives. During 
life, His Body had been, by degrees, and by the indwell- 
ing Spirit, spiritualized. He had received the assurance 
that it should not see corruption. Having passed 
through death, it was quickened by The Spirit, and be- 
came, in resurrection, a spiritual Body. In rising, He 



THE HOLY RESUEKECTIOX. 73 

got back His own life, a supernatural life, which included 
in it the whole life in soul and body, which He now has 
in Heaven, and egeneto, became a quickening Spirit, 
capable of imparting resurrection life to both body and 
soul. (John v.) 

It was as possessed of this Body and power that He 
now appeared to His disciples. They were sitting on 
the couches around the table. Apparently they were 
trying by iteration and re-iteration of the phrase "the 
Lord is ris^n indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon," to 
convince themselves of the fact. But iteration could 
not disturb the warmth of the burning hearts from 
Emraaus. While this was going on, as suddenly and as 
unexpectedly as He had appeared to Peter, as suddenly 
and as unexpectedly as all His appearances and disappear- 
ances after His resurrection were, He, the Risen Man, 
now suddenly ephaneroothee, appeared (Mark, vs. 14), 
in their midst. This verb is employed descriptively of the 
appearances of Jesus. It expresses the fact that they were 
those of an exalted Being. They invariably awakened 
within the apostles a feeling of awe and dread which 
even the joy could- not overcome. At this time the 
doors were, and remained, shut. There was no other 
way of bodily access. Yet the Elder Brother eelthen, came 
( John, vs. 19) — the verb expresses motion into the 
room* — how? none knew: whence? none could tell. He 
came not announced by any sight, or sound. During 
life His Body was so subject to The Spirit that He could 



[* This is not inconsistent with the foot note on page 39.] 



74 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 



walk upon the water, and be transfigured. Now it was 
so completely pervaded and controlled by Him that it 
could enter a room whose doors were shut. He came — 
a partial fulfillment of John xvi, 22 — ladened with the 
fruits of holy sorrow and suffering for them. Estee, He 
stood, en mesoo autoon (Luke, vs. 36), eis to meson 
(John, vs. 19), in the midst of them, and said, "Shalom 
Lashem, eireene humin, Peace be unto youP 

This, His first word to them, after His resurrection 
— His Easter greeting — was the usual Jewish greeting. 
But how immensely deeper its meaning here! Before 
His death He had said, "Peace I leave with you." By 
His death He had secured, and now was rewarded by, the 
fullness of this same peace. He can, and does, with the 
greeting, impart the gift: "By peace let your hearts be 
filled. Let all fear and anxiety give place to instant, 
full and permanent divine repose. I live. And be- 
cause I live, you live also. Open your hearts to receive 
the peace made for, and secured to you, by My death, 
and which 1, your Risen Master, bring." 

But this assuring word, coming as it did from the 
well known voice, did not at once dissipate the terror 
which His unexpected appearance had inspired. They 
had witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus. But he had 
come forth with his natural body unchanged. But this 
appearance was according to the laws regulating the res- 
urrection body. And with these laws they had no experi 
mental acquaintance. They had never seen a spiritual 
body. The thought of one ever being on earth, and 
visible to men, was far from their ordinary thinking. 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 



75 



They could not grasp the idea, so it seems, of Jesus thus 
corning forth. They had not, hence, been able to believe 
what had been told them on that day. And now, when 
they saw Him before them, they could have no other 
thought than this: that this appearance was — not 
phantasma, an apparition (Matt, xiv, 26; Mark vi, 49), 
but pneuma (Luke xxiv, 37), a spirit — a bodiless spirit 
from Hades appearing in the form of Jesus. And the 
sight of one from the abode of the dead was enough to 
terrify them as it did. 

"They supposed that they h?id seen a spirit." And 
this supposition may be accounted for, from (a) what 
the two had said, and (b) from Jesus' manner of enter- 
ing; (it seemed to them impossible for a body to enter 
as His had done) ; and (c) from the fact of the existence 
of the spirits of those once living, as disembodied, sep- 
arate, living and active. This last fact Jesus recognized 
and assumed in His "a spirit hath not flesh and bones as 
ye see Me have." It may be seen, but cannot be felt. 
And having that horror of bodiless spirits, which is 
natural, they were terrified. 

"Why," said He, "are you agitated in mind? Why do 
dialogismoi en tais kardiais, inward disputings, criti- 
cal questionings, (Luke ix, 46; Phil, ii, 14; 1 Tim. ii, 8), 
take the place in yov/r hearts of prompt and thorough 
recognition?" Idete, look, carefully investigate, "handle 
Me, and see." His object was to convince them by the 
senses of seeing, hearing and feeling, that the body, once 
slain, was really alive again, and had become a spiritual 
Body. Then He showed them His hands and feet, and side. 



76 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

And when they saw the wounds, which He carries still, 
memorials forever visible to the redeemed (Rev. v, 6) 
evidences of that identity which He asserted — "It is I 
Myself 1 ' — and proofs of the accomplishment of His aton- 
ing work, and of His victory over death, they were con- 
vinced. This consciousness of identity conclusively 
shows the restoration of that life which had ceased at 
His death. And its commencing glorification is seen 
in this, that He could instantly pass from place to place, 
and suddenly and unexpectedly appear in a room whose 
doors were shut. He is conscious that He is not the 
same, for He says, "while I was yet with you" — and yet 
that He is the same-— for in the full and sublime con- 
sciousness of identity, He said, "Handle Me, and see: 
a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have." 
And they handled Him. (1 John i, 1, 5.) 

Still they hesitated, not, however, now, from doubt, 
but from excess of wonder and joy. To their revived faith, 
He said, Have you here hroosimon, anything to eat? They 
gave Him from the meal already ended perhaps, a piece 
of a ojptou, roasted fish, and — it the word be genuine — 
of a honey-comb.* He took them, and ate them before 
them. This action demonstrated the reality of His 
Body, as the scars in it did its identity with that body 
which had served Him during life, and had hung upon 
the cross. In a higher condition than formerly, and spir- 
itual it was, but not yet glorified. It was in a transition 

[*"And of a honey-comb" is wanting in Sin. Vat. Alex. Stier is 
in doubt. Alford brackets, but remarks, "they could hardly have 
been an interpolation/ 1 Lange retains them.] 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 77 

state, and on its way to glory. It hence, possessed the 
attributes, partly, of both states. It could eat, yet pass 
through a shut door. "We have no experience of this tran- 
sition state. We cannot, hence, form a clear conception 
of it. But we can grasp the fact of its existence as sure- 
ly as we can the fact that angels ate, and that we, in our 
glorified bodies, shall eat bread in the kingdom to come. 
(Gen. xvii; xix; Matt, xxvi, 29; Luke xxii, 16-18.) 

Thus Jesus gave them an ample opportunity to exer- 
cise their senses intelligently,' variously and sufficently, 
upon the question of the reality of His presence with 
them alive, and in His resurrection Body. They heard, 
and knew His voice. They saw, and handled His form. 
They saw Him eat common food before them. Their 
doubts were removed. Their minds were tranquilized. 
They were glad, for they saw the Lord. 

Having assured them of His identity, personal reality 
and presence, and having seen them glad because they 
saw Him, and having upbraided them for their unbelief 
and hardness of heart, in not believing the word of them 
who had seen Him after He was risen, He gave them a 
foundation for their faith in the reality and certainty of 
His resurrection, more stable than even His appearance. 

1st — He points out His resurrection, and the distinc- 
tion between His past, and His present and future rela- 
tions to them: "These are the words which I spake unto 
yon while I was yet with you" This word shows that 
in His own mind, and in fact His disseveration from 
this scene of mortality, and from all ordinary intercourse 
with His disciples, was complete. And it is further a 



78 THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 

distinct declaration of the new relation which He sus- 
tains to the world, and to individual believers and the 
church, in all ages. He is with them, and jet the sep- 
aration is as great as is the distance between mortality 
and resurrection. 

2d — He declares that during His pre-resurrection life 
He had often spoken to them these words: "that all 
things written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, 
and in the Psalms concerning Himself, must be ful- 
filled." (Comp. Matt, xvi, 21; xvii, 22; xx, 14; Mark 
viii, 31; ix, 22, &c.) And here, as in His talks to the 
two disciples on their way to Emmaus, He distinctly 
laid the foundation of the reality of His sufferings, death 
and resurrection in the "necessity" of those Scriptures. 
These must be because God had long before so declared 
in the Scriptures. And these must be fulfilled. 

3d — He then said unto them a second time, "Peace 
be unto you." This word, when spoken on His entrance, 
was to them as believers, and for their personal comfort. 
Now, it had regard to them as witnesses. Before they 
could be the preachers of the perfect peace which the 
Gospel brings, they must be filled with it, as, to, and 
by, the facts which they were to proclaim. This they 
now receive. Then He gave the first part of His com- 
mission: "In like manner as the Father hath sent Me" 
— strictly speaking, the one only apostle (Heb. iii, 1) — 
'•out from heaven," so I, "in the Kingdom of resurrec- 
tion and reconciliation," send you "out of it into the 
world, into which I was sent, and out of which I went 
by death. I send you with equal authority, and to the 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



7!) 



same great end, i. e., to go, and bear witness to Me, 
through the manifestation of Myself living in yon, as 
the Father sent Me to testify of Him, and manifested 
Himself in Me. I send yon to live, act, suffer in the 
world, as I have done." 

For this mission and work He had been anointed. All 
that He had done, said and suffered, had been under the 
guidance and by the power of The Spirit. He was now 
the Kisen Son of Man. But though standing on res- 
urrection ground, He no more now, than during life? 
acts independently of The Spirit. Through Him 
now, and during the "forty days" He gave command- 
ments to the apostles whom He had chosen, and spake 
to them of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of G-od. 
(Acts i, 4, 5.) Partakers, as are all His people, of Hi^ 
grace, and hereafter to be of His glory (for His love im 
pelled, His promise obliged Him to ask this for them, 
John xvii), they must personally experience that it is 
the blessedness of man to live, act and speak by The 
Spirit. Witnesses of His life, and now of His resurrec- 
tion and recipients of His testimonies, they must become 
His messengers to the world, as the free and intelligent 
organs of the holy life of the Personal God. And fur- 
ther, as united to Him vitally, and as spiritual, they 
are to become reservoirs through which the living 
waters must flow forth. All this could be only by and 
after each one had been anointed and filled with The 
Spirit from Him, as He had been from the Father. 
Hence, having spoken the second word of peace, He pro • 
ceeded to an act which showed His immediate access to 



80 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

the human spirit, His absolute control over it, His 
ability to fill it completely with the f alness of God, and to 
adjust its vision, and give it spiritual discernment. He, 
the Risen One, standing in (1 Tim. iii, 18), and redolent 
of, The Spirit, enephuseese, breathed upon them, saying, 
"Receive ye Holy Spirit." This act and word showed that 
Tne Spirit, who, during His own sad and suffering life, 
had been given Him for His own use, was now through 
His atonement, set free. The disciples were not only 
thus made partakers of His resurrection life, but also 
of The Spirit. The breathing was an act of divine and 
sovereign power. This verb is used in Gen. ii, 7 (Lxx) 
to express the action of God in imparting life and spirit 
to man. God's breath of life, that is, Ruach, The Spirit 
of God in His actual Personality, breathed into man's 
nostrils the breath of life (Job xxxiii, 7; Is. xlii, 2), and 
man became a conscious, self-revealing soul. Such an 
in-breathing never occurs as the act of man. And this 
act, so direct, so real and so efficacious, shows that Jesus 
was God as well as Man. The breathing into was the vehi- 
cle for the bestowment and reception of what took place in 
the act. As there was by that breathing an actual impart- 
ing to, and an actual receiving by, Adam, of lite from the 
Creator, so by this, of actual Spirit from the Risen One. 
They actually shared in the higher life to which He had 
been raised, and actually also received The Spirit. They, 
thus became consciously spiritual men — the first fruits of 
the new creation, of which Jesus is the Head, which sanc- 
tifies and completes the natural creation, of which Jesus 
is the Maker. Thus The Spirit became to them, thus 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 81 

only can He become to any, the in- dwelling Spirit. This 
in-dwelling was then, and must ever be, the prelude of, 
and a preparation for, the fulness. What Pentecost was 
to Ascension, this in-breathing was to Resurrection. 
And thus, then, and thus ever only, can He ever be the 
ever-present, ever-living Witness, and His in-dwelling 
and fulness the only ever convincing and conclusive 
testimony to the generations of men of the fact and 
power of Jesus' resurrection. The historical fact may 
be received upon historical testimony. But the signifi- 
cance and power of the fact can be appreciated, and work 
its own true effect upon the consciousness of men only 
when, and as testified to by those who have felt the same, 
and testify to it in the power of The Spirit. For, without 
this in-breathing, man has no more power or inclination 
to speak of the resurrection of Jesus, save as a bare his- 
torical fact, than had the clay formed into man at first, 
to act before the in-breathing took place. Those and 
those only who have been made partakers of the resur- 
rection life by the in-dwelling, and of power to testify 
by the in-filling of — The Spirit, can speak of the fact by 
the authority of the Eisen Lord and with divine and 
convincing power and assurance to man. And it is 
this (and nothing less can do it), that invests the testify- 
ing work of Spirit-indwelt believers with such awful 
responsibilities. For what they speak is the direct tes- 
timony of God; and the issues depending upon its recep- 
tion or rejection are momentous, because eternal. 

4th — By this act of inbreathing He opened their un- 
derstanding. The verb, dianoigoo signifies to open, so 



82 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



as to admit a person or thing, otherwise shut out; a?, 
open gates, to admit entrance; ears, to admit hearing; 
eyes, to admit light. (Hark vii, 33, 35; Luke xxiv, 31: 
Acts xvi, 14.; He opened the understanding, that they 
might swiienai, join together in the mind, compare, 
comprehend and see clearly, the Scriptures, in their im- 
port, scope, connection and significance. Thus were 
they enabled to pass, not over, but through, the letter to 
the Spirit, to understand the divine teaching concern- 
ing Jesus and His resurrection, to trace the sequences of 
things, and see how, of necessity, they must occur, see 
in the prophecies the roots of the facts of His death and 
resurrection, and consciously, and with continual fresh- 
ness, realize the threefold conviction of sin, of righteous- 
ness, and of judgment. Henceforth, the book was to 
them unsealed — type of that action by which, hereafter, 
the veil will be taken away from Israel. [1 Cor. iii, 
15-18.] 

This is a statement of unspeakable value. It is a 
declaration that by The Spirit's action alone can the. 
understanding be opened so that one can understand 
the Scriptures, that the sword of The Spirit is the Word 
oi God, and that this expounded, illustrated and en- 
forced by the tongue of lire, is the only weapon entrusted 
to the church to use. This Word is the vehicle by which 
truth, and Jesus Hiinself, comes into the soul. By its 
own force it must overcome the prejudice and hostility 
which it meets. To convince the understanding and in- 
telligence, it must be spoken, not by ignorant or hesitat- 
ing witnesses (for this, like a trumpet's uncertain sound, 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. .83 

could only distract), but by witness of understanding 
and intelligence. To move the heart it must be spoken 
with assurance, power and tenderness. To arouse the 
conscience to profound conviction, it must be announced 
with the profound conviction of its vital importance. 
And to change the soul in its receivings and actings, it 
must be brought into it by the power of The Spirit. 
For this vitally indispensable prerequisite to success in 
convincing men of the reality and power of Jesus' resur- 
rection, the disciples were prepared by this inbreathing, 
and opening of the understanding. They had now the 
power to move the soul. They had also a true spiritual 
insight into the Word of God. It was revealed to them 
anew. They saw its meaning and force. Truth rose 
before their minds in all its clear simplicity and awful 
majesty. Jesus' profound, far-reaching words were seen 
in all their divine proportions and significance. The 
naturally .unimaginable mercy of God shown in saving 
men through the vicarious sufferings and death of One 
became a living, glorious and powerful reality — the basis 
on which they could preach "repentance and remission 
of sins" to the world. 

To the Apostles, these acts and words were a solemn 
confirmation and sealing to their apostolic office and 
work. But in the inbreathing, and the opening of the 
understanding, those "that were with them" equally 
shared.* The narratives make no exception. The whole 
assembly shared in all the bestowments; personally, and 



[*A comparison of Luke xxiv, 53, with John xx, 22-24, shows 
this fact.] 



84 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

as representatives of the church in all ages. One fact 
may remove any hesitancy upon this point. By such 
only as have the imparted insight, and power of dis- 
cerning spirits, can sins be declared remitted or re- 
tained. This can come only from the deep personal ex- 
perience. Insight and power are not the prerogatives of 
office or position, but the heritage of all believers. 
(2 Cor. xii. 10; 1 John iv. 1; Acts v,ll; xiii, 31; xiii, 
9 &c.) When, afterwards, the authority to preach was 
given, none of Jesus' followers present were excepted. 
All could so tell the facts and truths experimentally 
known, that others could experimentally know them too; 
and thus the word become unto them, if received by faith, 
"a savor of life into life" (and this includes sins remit- 
ted), or, il rejected, "of death unto death" (and this is 
sins sealed). The disciples, as organs of The Spirit, 
could discern the effect of the word, and speak accord- 
ingly. They could say to those believing, "your sins 
have been remitted" (Greek), to the others, "your sins 
are retained." Thus they could loose, or bind, remove 
or seal, sins: "Whosoever sins ye remit, they have been 
remitted, and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained. 
This was true then, this is true to-day, of all Spirit-in- 
dwelt believers. And this invests their position with 
an awful grandeur and responsibility. 

5th— Having "opened the understanding to under- 
stand the Scriptures," Jesus proceeded to expound these 
to them — perhaps in a similar way to that in which He 
had done this unto "the two" on that afternoon. (Luke, 
xxiv, 46; comp. vss. 26, 27.) Using the verb which He 



THE HOLY EESURRECTIOX. 85 

constantly used, when speaking of the moral necessity 
in which His work and sufferings were rooted, He said 
*l£dei, it is necessary that outoos, thus, i.e., in this man- 
ner, ton Christon, the Christ, i.e., of prophecy, should (a) 
suffer, and (b) be raised from the dead the third day ; 
and (c) that in the name of this Christ repentance and re- 
mission of sins should be preached (d) among all nations, 
beginning at Jerusalem. Subsequently* He said, "Ye 
are witnesses of these things. Behold^ I send the prom- 
ise of My Father upon you. In Jerusalem, ye shall be 
endued with power from on high. And this power, 
which was to be o-iven to the witnesses from age to a^e, 
would work in human minds and hearts a conviction as 
to the reality, and a true understanding as to the import, 
of these facts. Thus the argumeut becomes complete 
in the human consciousness. Repentance and remis- 
sion of sins on the oround of these facts, could not be 
preached, much less experienced, unless the facts them- 
selves were realities. And these facts were not some- 
thing abnormal, but occurrences that "must he" (a) from 
the nature of things; (b) from the fact that centu- 
ries before it was thus written in the Book of God. 

Xo proclamation of repentance and remission of sins, 
based upon Jesus' death and resurrection, had yet been 
made. But the Eisen One declared that it would be 
made, first in Jerusalem, and then after that among all 

[^Although it cannot be positively asserted, the probabilities are 
that the words "Ye are witnesses. &c," (Luke, vss. 48, 49 s were 
spoken upon the day of Jesus' ascension. But because of its con- 
nection with the preceding verses, we treat it here." 



86 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

nations. Forty days after this, in Jerusalem, and ever 
since, among the nations, has this prophecy been in the 
process of fulfillment. 'No instruction of man could 
show one how, and no power of man could compel one 
to thus preach. This must be a matter of personal 
conviction. Nor could human power work conviction in 
the human consciousness from age to age, that the things 
announced were actual facts. The active agency of God 
must be admitted. Thus only can the fact that these 
are received as facts in the human consciousness, be ex- 
plained. The living proclamation is an ever-present, 
living and conclusive testimony to the fact that Jesus 
is the Christ, the Son of God, who died for our sins, and 



Jesus' Sixth Appearance-to Thomas, 

Time: Lord's Day, April 16th, A, D. 30. 

Place; Jerusalem. In the upper room, perhaps, where the Supper 
had been instituted, this and the fifth appearance were given. 

John xx, 24-39. 

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus (the 
twin), was not with them when Jesus came — i.e., unto 
the company on the night of April 9th. 

The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have 
seen the Lord. 

Incredulity ot Thomas.] But he said unto them, 
Except I shall see (I see, idoo) in His hands the print 
of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the 
nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not 
believe. 

And after eight days again, His disciples were within, 
and Thomas with them: 

Jesus' appearance.] Then came Jesus (Jesus cometh, 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



87 



evchetai), the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, 
and said, Peace be mi to you. 

His word to Thomas.] Then saith He to Thomas, 
Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands ; and 
reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side; and 
be (become, ginou) not faithless, but believing. 

Conviction of Thomas.] And Thomas answered and 
said unto Him, My Lord and my God. 

Jesus' reply.] And Jesus saith unto Him, Thomas-, 
{wanting in many 3fss.) because thou hast seen Me, thou 
hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and 
yet have believed. 



Thomas, a Galilean probably, a twin — whose twin- 
sister was named Lysia, tradition says — was an early 
follower of Jesus. He was called into the apostleship, and 
made an apostolic journey into India, where he founded 
churches, and where he suffered martyrdom. His ab- 
sence from the gathering of the disciples on the previous 
Lord's Day could not have been involuntary, nor acci- 
dental. This conduct corresponds with the character- 
istics of him so vividly portrayed in his sayings [John 
xi, 16; xiv, 5; xxi, 2], and as delineated by Thorwalsden, 
in his famous statue of him, now in a church in Copen- 
hagen. There he stands, the thoughtful, meditative man, 
struggling through difficulties and doubts, wei^hin^ ev- 

©o t> © 'so 

jdence, and unable to believe until powerfully convinced. 
The traits given of him place his character before us 
with a precision which belongs beside,only to Peter, John 
and Judas Iscariot among the twelve. A man of ar- 
dent temperament, generous impulses, and a loving 
heart, he was strongly attached to Jesus. Once, when 



88 THE HOLY RESUKRECTION, 

he saw Him face the dangers that awaited Him in Judea, 
and looked upon the journey as leading to total ruin, he 
determined to share in the peril: "let us also go, that 
we may die with Him." His sensibilities are very 
acute. His reflective faculties were prominent. This made 
him hesitant. When decided, he was firmly so; but he 
must see clearly. And he was prone to look at difficul- 
ties, and at the dark side of things. At Jesus' remark, 
at the supper, "whither I go, ye know; and the way ye 
know," He expressed incredulous doubt as to moving a 
step in the unseen future, and eager inquiry how that 
step was to be taken : "Lord, we know not whither Thou 
goest, and how can we know the way?" He was the 
critical one among the apostles, and the embodiment of 
that principle, so necessary and wholesome, which in- 
vestigates tacts, wants to know the ground and reason, 
clears the field of myths and phantasies, and can let no- 
thing remain that is not established on a right and true 
foundation. He was skeptical, but honest and truth- 
loving. And his doubting was the result of his deep 
earnestness, and longing after truth. He must have re- 
ality. He would not receive a lie. But the truth, so 
soon as known, was welcomed gladly, and held firmly. 
Jesus' Divinity had been accepted by Him as a fact. 
But the idea of a suffering and dying Christ was to him 
totally incompatible with the idea of Divinity. Hence 
the sufferings and death of Jesus were a more dreadful 
shock to his faith than to his affections. It staggered 
under these blows. Doubts followed. Then his faith 
became a heap of ashes — under which, however, smoul- 



THE HOLY KESUK-KECTION. 89 

dered some fire. He could not explain the empty tomb, 
but he did not believe in the resurrection. Hence, he 
could not meet with the disciples. Isolation, not com- 
panionship, suited his state of mind. When, after the 
meeting, the disciples told him of Jesus' appearance to 
the assembly, their word should have been, but was not, 
sufficient ground for him to rest faith upon. He doubted 
not their honesty of conviction or word, but he distrusted 
their understanding. Their joy seemed to him unreal. 
Sight and touch alone would convince him that the ap- 
pearance was that of a real body, and that body Christ's. 
To their ott-repeated saying, "We have seen the Lord," 
he broke out in the oft-repeated reply, which is a certain 
index of the disquietude of unbelief, an expression of the 
vehemence of his doubt, and consequent poverty and 
helplessness. And it, at the same time, shows how 
vivid was the picture which his mind retained of his 
Master's form, as he had seen Him lifeless on the cross : 
"Except I see in His hands the print of the nails, and 
put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my 
hand into His side, ou mee pistuoo, I will not, I can- 
not believe"* 

Their senses were as sound, their intellects were as 
clear, their spiritual discernment was as true as his own. 
His unbelief, therefore, arose from self-will, and so was 
sinful. So also was his daring to demand a certain kind 
of evidence, i.e., his own action upon Jesus, as a neces- 

[*TJiomas may have heard from John of the stigmata, or he may- 
have been present at the crucifixion. If the latter, then the re- 
mark on the top of page 237 of the u Holy Death" must be corrected.] 



90 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

sary preliminary to believing. But he could not wholly 
break away from the power of their word, nor could he 
extinguish the love of his own heart to Jesus. Tossed, 
hence, between the conviction of his understanding, and 
the love and fidelity of his heart, he, during that week — 
while the other disciples were resting in peace, and en- 
joying the gift of The Spirit — was walking about, or re- 
maining at home, solitary and sad, contending with 
doubts, and seeking; outward evidences. 

One good result of this week's experiences, however, 
appeared. He was willing to be at the next weekly gath- 
ering of the disciples. This was on the .second Lord's 
day of history, April 16th, A.D. 30. The assembling 
shows that already that day was regarded as holy. And 
Jesus' appearance to the assembly puts upon the day 
special emphasis and honor. Thomas was there, humbled 
and penitent. The record does not inform us whether 
there was an expectation of a recurrence of the visit of 
the previous Lord's Day or not. The doors were shut. 
Suddenly, Jesus erchetai, cometh, kai estee, and stood 
in their midst, *nd said, "Peace be to you" all, especially 
to you, Thomas: for he had not that peace which Jesus' 
presence and word had imparted to the others, and which 
faith had received. Then (eita presently) turning to 
him, the doubting, and so hindering one of the company, 
as if this had been the special object of His appearance, 
He uttered the words which convey as strongly the sense 
of condemnation and tender reproof, as those of Thomas 
had shown the sense of hesitation and doubt. "Thomas, 
phere, bring thy finger hoode, hither" — a particle which 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 91 

intimates that Jesus Himself pointed, while speaking, 
to His own wounds — u Jcai ide, and see" i.e., investigate, 
and through the senses make sure of, "My hands;" — a 
reply, this, to Thomas' "except I see in His hands the 
print of the nails" — "and bring thy hand and thrust it 
in My side" — an answer to Thomas' "except I thrust my 
hand into His side," and a phrase indicating that the 
opening was wide and deep enough to put the hand into ; 
and mee ginou, become not, apistos, unbelieving, but be- 
lieving, i.e., as a condition of mind (Gal. iii, 6), and as to 
the essential point, resurrection, and all it implies and 
involves. The phrase indicates that Thomas was at that 
critical point where he could not stop, but must go on 
until he passed into perfect peace, or into total unbelief. 

Jesus' knowledge of Thomas' previous and present 
words and spirit, came not from His omniscience — for 
He had not yet ascended — but from the Father by The 
Spirit. (John vii, 17; viii, 26, 28, 38.) To Thomas it 
was a startling revelation. Jesus' manner of entrance, 
salutation, form, looks, voice, challenge, and the marks of 
suffering and mutilation immutably impressed upon His 
resurrection Body, were proofs most indisputable that 
it was the same Body which had hung upon the cross. 
The repetition of his own words, spoken only in the hear- 
ing of his fellow disciples, the address to the thought 
of his heart,* and especially the infinite, reviving, and 
heart- teaching love towards him, all combined with the 
external to produce upon Thomas immediate and most 



[*See John i, 48-50, for another example.] 



92 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



profound conviction. The truth shone in upon him with 
sudden splendor. Senses, intellect and heart were in- 
stantly and fully satisfied. All doubts disappeared. The 
Divine Man stood before him. His conviction of this 
fact was deeper and stronger than that of the other apos- 
tles. He had said, "Unless I thrust my hand into His 
side, I will not believe." But asked to do this, he does 
it not. He is convinced without it. He has found his 
Lord again. Victory over death and the grave has aroused 
and inspired his worship. He bounded at a spring from 
the depth of despondency to the height of joy. In one 
exclamation — whether an address, or a description, it was 
said to Jesus — he poured forth his perfectly satisfied 
adoration, his profoundest feeling,clearest perception and 
victorious faith: "Jehovah, Adonai, my Lord and my 
God." 

This formula, in the Old Testament, belonged exclu 
sively to the Creator. In the month of an apostle, it 
always referred to Jesus. And the words, while they show 
how the disciples understood the phrase, "Christ, the 
Son of God," are a far higher assertion of Jesus' Divin- 
ity than any other of the apostolic age. In the appro- 
priative, soul -satisfying word of faith, "My," Thomas 
declares the identity of the Risen with the Crucified. 
He who now stood before him, was, he said, He whom 
he had worshipped before. And this word shows — for 
"none can say that Jesus is the Lord but by The Spirit" 
— that Thomas had received The Spirit without, as the 
ten had through, the breathing. The Son of Man became 
Man that men might find the living God in His human- 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



93 



ity. From resurrection, and the open, bloodless wounds, 
Thomas was convinced of the fact. The church has ever 
since been struggling towards, and trying to spell out, the 
words he spoke. And his has been the faith of all be- 
lievers since — a faith not formulated in cold dogmas, 
but coming forth spontaneously from living souls. 

Jesns saith unto him,*"because, eoorakas, pepisteulcas, 
thou hast seen,thou hast believed" — art become a believer, 
art in possession of complete and intelligent faith. The 
perfect tense indicates that the present faith, grounded 
on the whole past, is genuine. And the words of Jesus 
which follow, the goal of the development of faith in the 
circle of those then believing, was the starting point for 
faith on earth: "Blessed are they who have not seen, yet 
have believed." This is not a condemnation of sight. 
For Jesus had shown Himself to others, and they had 
seen. And unless some had seen, there could be no testi- 
mony to the fact. But it is a word of encouragement 
to those who could not see. "Blessed are those" of all 
coming generations, at any point in the future, "who 
having not seen Me" in the flesh, have yet, upon the testi- 
mony of those who have seen Me, have "believed." 

Jesus' Seventh Appearance. 

Persons, seven disciples ; Place, Lake of Galilee, called also the Sea 
of Tiberias; Time, April-May, A.D. 30. 
Matt, xxviii, 16; John xxi, 1-24. 

Then, after these things, the Eleven went away into 
Galilee. 



[*"Thomas,"in vs. 29 of E. V., is wanting in the best manuscripts, 
and is omitted by Tisch., Treg., Alf., God.. Mey., Lange,West., Hort.] 



91 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



And Jesus shewed (manifested, ephaneroosen) Him- 
self again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias; and on 
this wise (in this manner), showed (manifested) He Him- 
self. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas, 
called Didymus, and Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, and 
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, and two other 
(others, allot) of His disciples. Simon Peter saith unto 
them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, "We also go 
{pome, erchometha) with Thee. They went forth, and 
entered into a (the, to) ship,* and (in, en) that night 
they caught nothing. But when the morning was now 
come (morning was already coming on, prooias de liedee 
genomenees) day was breaking, P. Y.,) Jesus stood on the 
Jesus suddenly pres- \ shore; but the disciples knew 
ent on the shore. J not that it was Jesus. 

Then saith Jesus unto them, Children, have ye any 
meat (anything to eat, ti prosjphagiori) ? 

They answered Him, No. 

And He said unto them, Cast the net on the right 
side of the ship, and ye shall find. 

Success following obedience.] They cast therefore, 
and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude 
of (the, toon) fishes. 

Therefore that disciple whom. Jesus loved saith unto 
Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard 
that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's {outer) coat about 
him (for he was naked), and did cast himself into the 
sea. But (de) the other disciples came in a (the, too) 
little ship (boat, ploiarioo), (for they were not far from 
land, but as it were — only about — two hundred cubits ), 
dragging the net with (full of, P.Y.) fishes. As soon, 
then, as they were come to land (so when they got out 
upon the land, R.Y.), they saw (see, blejyousin) a fire of 



[*J5Juthus, immediately, of T.R., is wanting in the best Mss., and 
is omitted by most critical commentators.] 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



95 



coals there, and fish laid (lying, epikeimenou) thereon, 
and bread. 

Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye 
have now caught. 

Simon Peter went up (on board), and drew the net to 
land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three : 
and for all there were so many, yet was not the net brok- 
en (rent eschisthee). 

They breakfast with Jesus.] Jesus saith unto them, 
come and dine-f- (breakfast, aristeesate.) 

And none of the disciples durst ask Him, Who art 
Thou? knowing that it was the Lord. 

Jesus then cometh and taketh the bread, and giveth 
them, and the fish likewise. 

This is now the third time* that Jesus showed Him- 
self (was manifested, ephaneroothee), to His disciples after 
that He was risen from the dead. 

Jesus' questions to Pe- \ So when they had dined 
ter and Peter's answers, j (breakfasted), Jesus saith 
to Simon Peter, Simon, son ot Jonas, (John, Iooannou**} 
lovest {agapas) thou Me more than them? 

He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I 
love {philoo) Thee. 

He saith unto him, Feed (boske) My lambs. 

He saith unto him again the second time, Simon, 
son of Jonas, (John) lovest {agapas) thou Me? 

[■fAristaoo, signifies to take any meal, except dinner or supper, 
also the lunch before the delpnon, supper, which was the chief meal 
of the day. Here it is the early, or morning meal.] 

[*Not the third appearance, (for John records three others,)but the 
third to the apostles. John gives the other two in oh. xx. These 
we have considered. These manifestations reported by John are 
summed up by Paul thus: "Then of the Twelve." 1 Cor. xv, 5.] 

[**The Iooana here, and in i, 42, of T. K., must give way to 
loommou, a cording to the best critical authorities. See Dr. SchatFs 
footnote on the two passages.] 



96 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



He saith unto Him, Yea, L >rd; Thou knowest that I 
love (philoo) Thee. 

He saith unto him, Feed (tend, poimaine) My sheep. 

He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas 
(John) lovest (philies) thou Me? 

Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third 
time, Lovest thou Me? And he said unto him, Lord, 
Thou knowest (oidas) all things; Thou knowest (per- 
ceivest clearly, ginooslceis) that 1 love (philoo) Thee. 

Jesus saith unto him, Feed (hoske) my sheep (sheep- 
lings, ta probatia). Yerily, verily, I say unto thee, when 
thou wast young thou girdest thyself,and walkest whither 
thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt 
stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and 
carry thee whither thou wouldest not. 

This spake He signifying by what (kind of, poioo) 
death he should (was to) glorify God. 

And when He had spoken this, He saith unto him, 
Follow Me. 

Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom 
Jesus loved following; which also leaned on His breast 
at (the, too) Supper, and said, Lord, which is he that be- 
trayeth Thee? Peter (therefore, own*) seeing him, saith 
to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do (or, But how 
will it be with him, outos de ti)% 

Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I 
come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. 

Then, therefore, went this saying abroad among the 
brethren, that that disciple should not die (dieth not, 
ouk apotlmeskei) : yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall 
not die (dieth not) ; but, if I will that he tarry till 1 come, 
what is that to thee? 

This is the disciples which testih'eth of these things. 



[*Ou/i is a reading adopted by all the critical edd.] 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 97 

and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony 
is true. 

John xxi has occasioned some critical discussion. It 
appears like, and by some critics is declared to be, an 
addenda. Some say it may be, others that it is not such. 
But its genuineness and authenticity appear well estab- 
lished.* And it has been ever received by the Church 
as a part of the sacred Scriptures. 

It is quite often remarked that the apostles lingered 
in Jerusalem from a want of faith. But ten of the El- 
even had, • on the day of Jesus' resurrection, such con- 
vincing proof of the fact that no subsequent appearing 
could make it more certain. Their conviction is seen in 
the calmness of the word to Thomas "We have seen the 
Lord." They could not, hence, doubt but that He would 
meet them, as He had said, in Galilee. 

The fact is that their leaving the city during the Pass- 
over week, would have been a wound to their own deep 
religious convictions, and a shock to those of their coun- 
trymen. That week closed on Saturday evening. They 
would not leave on the Lord's Day, to them already an 
holy day. On the day that Thomas' unbelief was wholly 
removed, they could return an unbroken company. 
And immediately afterwards they started for Galilee. 
Thither the resurrection story leads our steps. 

Meta tauta, after these things — i.e., those which had 
wrought conviction ot Jesus' resurrection in the minds 
of the disciples — they witnessed Jesus faithfulness to 



[*See Lange in loco, Trench, On Mir, note xxiii.] 



98 THE HOLY EESUKEECTIOX. 

His word, "I will go before you" — the flock— "into Gali- 
lee." The words intimate that many days had passed since 
"these things," and that the disciples had time to think, 
in the quiet of Galilee, calmly, clearly, fully upon what 
they had seen and heard. Jesus'* again ejihanerosin 
eauton, manifested Himself to His disciples. This 
word, as used of Jesus' post-resurrection appearances, in- 
dicates (a) that they were always by a distinct act of His 
will 5 that the disciples did not, as during His life, see 
Jesus ; but that He appeared to them; and (b) that He 
was visible to them only when He, Himself, pleased to be. 
He did not now appear in order to prove that He had 
risen, but to instruct them in their duties, and to assure 
them of His blessing, as Risen, in their work for Him, 
and in their daily toil. This last was the object of the 
appearance by the Sea of Galilee; and the object of the 
one on the mountain in Galilee, was to give His people 
the Great Commission. All the Galilean appearances 
occurred during the latter part of April and first part 
of May, A.D. 30. 

After these things Jesus shower), not His wounds, but 
Himself. And outoos, thus i.e., in this manner, He man- 
ifested Himself. Two disciples, who may have been 
Andrew, Peter's brother, and Philip, Nathaniel's friend 
(Lange), or Aristion and the presbytei J ohn, of whom Pa- 
pias speaks as old disciples of Jesus (Godet), and five 
apostles. Peter, and the two sons of Zebedee, James and 



[* Afford omits the name. But no good reason can be given. It 
is found in B.C. Sin. Alex. Vat., and is retained by Tisch., Treg,, 
Lange, Godet, Westcott and Hort.] 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION, - 99 

John are well known. We have already given a sketch 
of Thomas. Nathaniel, (whose name is equivalent to 
Theodore, a gift, or given of God), was a native, or resi- 
dent, of Cana, in Galilee. He was, by one who could read 
the heart, specially characterized as a man of most guile- 
less disposition, and of unswerving truthfulness — a char- 
acter rarely paralleled in the Scriptures. (John i, 47.) 
One of those devout Jews who had listened to John 
Baptist, he became one of the first four disciples ol Jesus. 
This was within a week after His (Jesus') victory over 
Satan, and on the second day after John had pointed Him 
out as the Lamb, and as the Son of God. Jesus' answer 
to a remark of his showed him that He had heard his 
unuttered prayer, and so must be able to read his secret, 
thoughts. He immediately confessed Him as the Son 
of God and King of Israel (John i, 46). If he be the one 
mentioned under the patronymic Bartholomew, and this 
is now generally admitted,* he was one of the twelve 
apostles. His name appears no more until here, as one 
of the seven who, after a night of fruitless toil, were 
witnesses of the miraculous draught of fishes, and of 
Jesus' seventh post-resurrection appearance. 

They were together to engage in their ordinary life- 
calling. Peter said, "I. go a fishing" — not for pastime, 
but for livelihood. The rest said "we come with thee." 
They went forth from the place they were to that sea 
which would vividly remind them of their now Risen 
Lord. At once they entered the fishing boat, put off from 



[*See note of Dr. Schaff in Lange, on John i, 45.] 



100 



THE HOLY RESUBRJECTI02S". 



shore and spent the night (the most favorable time for 
catching fish, Luke v, 5), in catching — nothing. 

This scene is most prosaic. The men had passed 
through most extraordinary and amazing experiences. 
But not a trace of fanaticism, or unhealthy excitemeut 
can be detected in their deportment. Their minds were 
in a most healthy state, or they could not have passed 
this night in managing boats and dragging a net. They 
could act calmly and intelligently. Such men could not 
be easily deceived by fancies or myths. Such men, seek- 
ing to earn a livelihood by the honest and laborious toil 
of fishing, were not the men to construct a vast system 
of falsehood in order to impose it upon the credulity of 
mankind. 

When the morning was breaking, or had already 
dawned — for the text wavers between ginomenees and 
genomenees — Jesus stood on the shore, distant about one 
hundred yards. The fishers saw Him, but did not know 
who it was. Unseen He may be near. Unknown He 
may talk with us. "Young men {paidia)" said He, 
"have you any relish to eat with the morning bread or 
breakfast?" for this is what pros_phagion signifies; and 
fish was regarded as such a relish. This question, which 
anyone who needed a breakfast relish might ask of any 
fisherman, shows Jesus' genuine human interest. "No," 
they replied, showing that they did not recognize His 
voice. "Cast in your net on the right side of the ship, 
and you shall find," said He — a remark suggesting that 
the net had been drawn up into the ship, and that they 
had stopped fishing. They acted upon His suggestion. 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 10 i 

This shows the ascendency of the Unknown Man. And 
their obedient faith in His word had an abundant reward. 
So full was the net of fishes that they were not able to 
draw it up into the ship. The night of toil was followed 
by a morning of joy. And this magnificent draught 
may possibly have suggested the immense success which 
would follow their preaching when they become fishers 
of men. 

This scene recalled to John another similar morning 
scene on this same sea and shore, two years before, April. 
May, A.D. 28. Then, as now, t-he disciples, after a night 
of fruitless toil, let down their net in obedience to Jesus' 
word, and caught a multitude of fishes. Then Jesus 
called three of His disciples to become fishers of men. 

The coincidence struck John. He began, perhaps, to 
recall the tones of voice. Suddenly the fact flashed 
across his mind, and he expressed it to Peter, "It is the 
Lord." John contemplates, and divines. His eagle eye 
of love is the first to recognize. But Peter is the first 
to act, and that, too, with characteristic promptness and 
energy. Being naked, except the garment next the skin, 
which decency demanded — a sight common in the East 
to this day — he, out of proper respect for Jesus, put on 
his ependuteen, upper tunic (the garment worn between 
the inner tunic and outer coat, his fisher's blouse ; which 
was without sleeves, and extended to the knee), and girt it 
fast, so that he could swim freely. Then he jumped into 
the lake, and swam to shore. The rest followed in a 
small boat, dragging the full net with them. They found 
on the shore, when they reached it, a fire of coals, and 



102 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 



opsarion(from optaoo,to roast), a roasted fish laid thereon, 
and bread. The narrative clearly intimates that all these 
were provided by the Lord. But since we are not told, 
need not curiously inquire where ? He obtained them, or 
how? "Bring," said He, to add to the fish and bread which 
I have provided — '-of the fish which yehave now caught." 
Thus, by a symbol, He taught them, and us,that two factors- 
must enter into the supply of needs— His blessing and 
aid, and our faithful work (Ps. cxxviii, 2). Then Peter 
went up onboard of the boat, and drew the net to land. 
It contained 153 fishes, -and yet — and this is mentioned 
as a remarkable fact — the net was not broken. Then — 
after the net had been landed, and the fish roasted — said 
Jesus, "Come and aristeesate, take breakfast" The dis_ 
ciples were awed by Jesus' presence. They felt that the 
relations were not the familiar ones of former days. 
Though they knew that it was the Lord, none durst ask 
Him, "Who art Thou?" Then Jesus took the bread and 
fish, and gave them to them. .And the breakfast was 
eaten in silence. 

At this point in the narrative, John repeats his state- 
ment, "Jesus showed Himself to His disciples." Why s 
That we may see the significance of this appearance. 
This was not to establish in their minds the fact of His 
resurrection. That had been done by the previous ap- 
pearances which pointed backward to the empty tomb: 
"I have been dead. I am now alive." Already had He 
shown them that — because Scripture had so said, and it 
must be fulfilled — it was just as necessary that He should 
arise and ascend, as that He should suffer and die. But 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 103 

this and the subsequent appearances (save the one to 
James, His brother, which was for his conviction and 
conversion), point forward, and are the pledge and prom- 
ise of His abiding presence and actings in His church, 
by His Spirit, for all time. This one was, generally 
for all the disciples, and specially for Peter. 

It was to the former a manifestation of His confidence 
and love, of His recognition, of their bodily nee :1s, of 
His abiding interest in the daily calling and toil of His 
own, and of the true honor which He sets on that toil. It 
was His showing them symbolically, (a) through the 
draught of fishes, the success of their preaching; and lb) 
through the repast that He had provided, (1) that, in 
His work, they might depend upon Him for both spirit- 
ual and temporal assistance, and (2) — -in asking them to 
bring of the fish which they had caught — that the sat- 
isfying of their needs would depend upon the concurrence 
of the two factors, (a) His blessing and aid, and (b) their 
faithful work 'Thou shaft eat of the labor of thy hands." 
(Ps. cxxviii, 2.) He, in this action, pointed out the unity 
and harmony of the physical and spiritual creation. And 
He also thus made known, through this symbol, too, such 
important truths as these: the difference between cast- 
ing the net on the one side of the ship where nothing 
but exhaustion comes from the toil, and the casting of 
it, in obedience to His command, upon the other side 
and having it full, as the result ; the dependence for 
blessing and success,in any enterprise,upon His presence, 
and obedience to His word; and the assurande that He 
proposes, has ready, and gives to His people a morning 



104 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

meal before He sends them out to work for Him. 

It was to Peter a time and event of transcendent im- 
portance. And the resemblance between the p resent and 
previous scenes in his life is very marked. He had 
been called to the ministry after a miraculous draught 
of fishes. This was now after a similar draught restored 
to him. He had lost his office from his denial by a fire 
of coals. By this confession now, by another fire of coals, 
he secures it. Breakfast being over, a conversation fol- 
lowed between Jesus and Peter. Of his sin in denying 
Jesus he had, on that night of its occurrence, repented 
most bitterly. He had been specially named by the 
angels as one to whom the Risen Redeemer would appear. 
Doubtless, during the appearance to him alone on the 
evening of the resurrection, he had been pardoned. 
i\ T ow he was restored to the apostleship. Thrice ad- 
d.essing him by his name, Simon, son of John, which 
would recall to him his natural state (see page 95), out 
of which Jesus had brought him, into which again his 
fall had plunged him, and from which grace had a 
second time rescued him, He put that question, thrice 
repeated,* which goes to the very core of the subject, 

[*We give, in parallel columns, the 
Questions. Answers. Commands. 

1. Lovest thou Me Yea, Lord Thou know- Feed My lambs, 
more than these? est that I love Thee. 

2. Lovest, agapasy Yea, Lord, Thou know- Feed my sheep, 
thou Me? est that I love Thee. probata. 

3. Lovest, phi- Lord, Thou knowest Feed my sheep- 
leis, thou Me? all things, Thou know- lings, probitia. 

est that I love Thee. 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



105 



which Peter alone could answer, and which, together 
with his replies, are the counterpart of his three-fold 
temptation and denials: Simon, son of John, agapas, 
lovest thou Me more than these? 

This verb, agapas, describes the love eternal, unchange- 
able, and pure, which belongs to God, and also the 
reverential love grounded on high graces of character, 
which the child of God should ever bear and cherish 
towards Him, and towards his fellow men (Matt, xxii, 
37, 39, Grrlc). It points to the love of the will, that 
pure and perfect affection which includes veneration, 
reverence, and the deepest subjection to the object 
loved. And this love has the highest value — "more 
than these." This phrase, pleion toutoon, may refer to 
the subject loving, or to the object loved. It is exegeti- 
cally, the former. "Do you, Peter, who said, 'though all 
shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be 
offended,' love Me more than you love these, your 
brethren?" This question, while gently reminding Peter 
of his boast, and fall, gave him an opportunity to speak 
out honestly his real sentiments with puritied confidence 
and reverent joy. 

This appeal was direct and sudden. Peter felt its 
force. But unembarrassed by it he promptly replied. 
Agapas was a height to which he could not conscientious- 
ly rise. But he used a word which came out clear, full 
and strong from the depths of his consciousness: "Yea 
Lord, philoo, I love Thee." This verb expresses the 
personal love of human affection and relationship. He 
draws no comparisons. Yet conscious of his own weak- 



106 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



ness, and with an implied self-distrust that is beautiful, 
he appeals to Jesus' profound and personal knowledge 
of the heart: "Thou knowest that, despite my errors, 
faults and falls, I have a true personal love for Thee." 

Do you love Jesus? This is the root-question. This 
is the true pivot upon which everything must turn- 
Hence, Jesus, having said, "Feed My lambs," puts the 
question a second time: agapas, lovest thou Me? A 
second time Peter replies by philoo, I love Thee, Thou 
knowest. God must be the object of agapan before He 
can be the object of philein. And in his second use 
of philoo, Peter is evidently struggling to rise consci- 
ously from the philein, which he has, to the agapan. 
Then Jesus having told him to feed His sheep, puts the 
question the third time. But now, as if to help Peter 
up, He comes down to his word: u phileis Mee, lovest 
thou Me% Do you have towards Me the love of per- 
sonal affection?" 

This seemed a severe thrust. It apparently called in 
question not the reality, but endurance of, the philein, 
the personal affection, the lower kind of attachment 
which he had claimed. It was an appeal to his most 
self-penetrative knowledge. Its object was to deepen 
his consciousness of his fall, and to recall both the proud 
presumption with which he had overvalued himself, and 
the cowardly debasement with which he had so shame- 
fully denied his Lord. And this, not to lacerate the 
wound afresh, but to produce genuine humility. And 
this it did. Peter was sorrowful (Greek). With very 
deep feeling, he, for the third time, repeated his oidas 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 107 

Thou Jcnowest all things,&c. This verb signifies the actual 
perception of an object, (a) by the senses (b) by the 
mind. Thou hast from Thyself (perfect, middle), an ac- 
tual perception of tapanta, all things. Thou perceives t, 
and hast perceived, My heart, and every fact and feature 
of my life, my fall, my penitence. And from this percep- 
tion, ginooskeis, Thou hast come to know, hast gained 
a knowledge of the fact — for this is the force of this 
verb — "that I love Thee." Thus Peter opened his whole 
heart to Jesus' inspection. And Jesus, in the word, 
"the time is coming when thou must choose between 
denial and confession, and when coni ession will be' death," 
showed Peter how certainly He knew all things. 

To Peter's thrice-repeated answer Jesus gave a thrice- 
repeated commission. The first one was, boske taarnia 
mou, feed my little lambs. They, first and most of alb 
need nourishment; not discipline so much as abundance 
of good and wholesome food, given from a loving heart 
and by a loving hand. And Jesus used the verb, boske, 
which signifies simply to feed, and implies personal 
care in the feeding. The second one was, poimaine ta 
probata, feed My sheep. This is a higher and 
more comprehensive verb than boske, lead, like a shep- 
herd leads a flock. It includes the whole idea and 
office of the shepherd, leading, guiding, feeding. Here 
the pastoral care and oversight are declared to be an 
equally important office with the gathering in. "Feed 
My probata, sheep" The sheep, and also the lambs, 
belong to Jesus. Peter shows us (1 Epis. v, 2-4), how 
deeply he had learned this lesson, and how careful he 



108 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

was even in the words he uses to recognize this fact. 
And when any preacher dares to take that word into his 
mouth and say, "my church," "my flock," he, if the 
church is really one ot Christ's, shocks the instincts of 
the spiritual mind, and robs Jesus of His rights. The 
pastor is simply a shepherd, and he should feel and rec- 
ognize this fact as much in the words he uses as in the 
duties which he performs. He is to feed Jesus' probata, 
the strong, full-grown sheep/ also the probitia, (the read- 
ing of A.B,C. Sin. Tat., and adopted by Tisch., Treg., Alf., 
Lange, Godet), the little sheep, i.e., those half-grown, (a 
term expressing tenderness), and arnia, the little lambs, 
i.e., the children and the little ones in faith and spirit- 
ual growth. He is boskein, to feed, i.e., give the most 
personal care to the whole flock, not over- looking any, 
and poimanein, lead, like a shepherd, into the green 
pastures, by the quiet waters of grace, and under the 
shelter of the Man who is a hiding place from the storm, 
and a refuge from the tempest. The study of the Epis- 
tles, and especially of Acts xx, 28, with the context from 
vs. 18, on, shows how thoroughly the apostles had learned 
this great lesson, and how constantly, and conscien- 
tiously they acted upon it. 

John undoubtedly gives the exact words. And these, 
with the narrative in which they are embedded, suggest 
Jesus' object in putting these questions. We repeat. 
His prayer had kept Peter's faith from failing. His 
look had melted Peter's heart to contrition. His ap- 
pearance to Peter had given assurance of forgiveness 
and restoration of soul. He would now restore him to 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION, 109 

the apostleship, to the place where, being converted, he 
could strengthen the brethren and glorify God by his 
death — a privilege which he had forfeited by his unbelief 
and denial. But love to Jesus, and voluntary self-devo- 
tion, are indispensable conditions or pre-requisites, on 
which ministry for Jesus depends. Therefore these 
questions were put. They were rightly answered. Je 
sus, therefore, in His commission, "Feed, &c," restored 
him to the place in the apostolate which he had for- 
feited by his fall. 

Another object was the emancipation of Peter from 
the thraldom of self. The sharply incisive questions 
opened to Peter the depths of his Own being. He saw 
that love was there, but that it came not from himself, 
but from grace, upon which also the continuance and 
growth were dependent. Thus was he taught, and filled 
with, humility. Thus he saw the folly of any confidence 
in the flesh. Thus he learned to cling only and always 
to Jesus for all. And he now knew that He could feed 
the lambs, and be shepherd over the flock, as Jesus would 1 
have the work done, only by being filled with love, and 
by drawing all his supplies from God. 

And another object yet was to prepare him for the 
trial and death so painful to the flesh, so abhorrent to 
the will, which were before him. Jesus constituted 
him a witness in the full power of a martyr-faith. In 
the wol ds, -'thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and an- 
other shalt gird thee, and carry thee whither thou would, 
est not," He signified to him by what death he should 
glorify God. To this end he pledged strength to serve 



110 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

without fear of a second denial, and grace to die as a 
martyr should. And such a lesson would lead Peter for- 
ever from all egotism. 

To call into present exercise the consciousness of this 
self-surrender, Jesus said to him, "Follow Me" — in the 
power of resurrection, in the path of testimony and suff- 
ering, by the way of the cross, to the rest in which that 
path ends, and to the glory to which that resurrection 
leads. And thus He now, in spirit, makes good that 
promise given him at the Supper: "Whither I go thou 
canst not follow Me now; but thou shalt follow Me 
afterwards" (John xiii, 36.) 

Soon as J esus had spoken these words he commenced 
withdrawing from the company. Peter, taking the 
words in a literal sense, promptly followed. Turning 
about he saw John— who, having heard the words as 
though addressed to himself, was also following behind — 
and asked, "Lord, and what shall this man do?" We hear 
the answer, which says that some will die before, and 
others will tarry till, He comes. We see in Peter, who 
soon suffered martyrdom, and in John, who lived to be 
very old in the service of Jesus, two types of ministry, 
one, those who testify by martyrdom, the other, those 
who testify by speech and by pastoral activity. We see 
Jesus and the two going on. And though in Matthew 
we have another appearance, and in Luke Ascension, 
yet in John this is the last glimpse we get. On the 
3ye follows them until they are out of sight, and Jesus 
nas gone up to heaven. 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



Ill 



Jesus' Eighth Appearance. 1 

To the Eleven, and to above five hundred at once. 

Place : On a mountain in Galilee. 

Time : April-May, A.D. 30. 
Matt, xxviii, 16-20; Mark xvi, 15-17; 1 Cor. xv, 9. 

Alter that He was seen of above five hundred breth- 
ren at once; of whom the. greater part remain nnto this 
present (i.e., about twenty-jive years after the Ascension) 
but some are fallen asleep. 

Then the Eleven disciples went .... into a (the, too) 
mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when 
they saw Him, they worshipped Him; but some doubted 
(hesitated). 

And Jesus 'came and spake (having come, spake,) 
unto them, saying, All power (authority, exousia) is 
gi . en unto Me in (en) heaven, and in (on, epi) earth. 
Go ye therefore into all the world an 1 preach (Jceerugate) 
the gospel to every creature : and teach (make disciples 
of, matheetuesate) all (the, to) nations, baptizing them 
in the name (into the name, eis to onema) of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: He that be- 
iieveth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that be- 
lieveth not shall be damned (katahritheesetai) : Teaching 
(dirtoskontes) them to observe all things whatsoever 1 
have commanded you. And these signs shall follow them 
that believe: in My name shall they cast out devils; 
they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up 
serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall 
not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and 
they shall recover. And lo, I am with you always (all 
the days pasas tas heemeras), even unto the end of the 
world (of the age, ton aioonas). Amen. 

This was the chief and most decisive meeting of Jesus 
with His disciples after His resurrection. It was the 



112 THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 

only meeting which, with its time and place, He had ap- 
pointed; and its importance, significance and solemnity 
were very great. There the church received her great 
commission. 

Mark speaks only of, Matthew gives special promin- 
ence to, the Eleven. But the solemnity of the discourse 
seems befitting only to an assembly which would rep- 
resent the entire infant church. The promise of this 
meeting, given before His death, evidently respects the 
gathering together of the flock scattered by His death, 
(Matt, xxvi, 31, 32.) This promise, repeated on the 
morning of His resurrection when He had made the ap- 
• pointment, and mentioned also by the angels (Matt, 
xxviii, 7, 10), was given to the women, who also, cer- 
tainly, were included in it, and who were told to tell it 
to the disciples, whom Jesus calls My brethren (John 
xx, 17). This appointment, and the fact of His res- 
urrection, would be rapidly circulated among all the 
faithful. All who could would be gathered eis to oros, 
to the mountain where etaxato autois. He had appointed 
them. For His word was, "Jcakei mee opsontai, there 
shall they see Me? And the universal conviction of 
the church in all ages has been that then and there were 
gathered the more than five hundred brethren of whom 
Paul, twenty-five years later, speaks, as having seen, at 
one time, Jesus alive, and part of whom were living 
when he wrote.* 

The mountain on which this assembly gathered is 



[*See Stier's admirable remarks. Words of Jesus, viii, 278.] 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



113 



unknown. Perhaps it was Tabor, perhaps the mount 
of Beatitudes, where the Sermon had been delivered, and 
which was near the sea of Tiberias. 

But whatever the mountain, there they assembled, 
and there ophthee (Paul), He was seen by the eye.* And 
idontes auton, having seen, i.e., having perceived Him, 
by the senses knew Him. His majesty was so apparent, 
showing that He presented Himself in the glory of His 
divinity as well as in His exalted humanity, that they 
"worshipped :"-)■ hoide, hut some few, not of the Eleven, 
but of the others, doubted, we are frankly told. The 
some doubted, hesitated, not whether Jesus was arisen, 
but whether this was Jesus. Then, prosalthomi — elal- 
eleen — legoon (words belonging to the majesty of His 
appearance), Jesus, having come nearer to them, to all, 
especially to those who doubted, spake^ saying, and His 
presence and words took away all doubt. 

The consciousness of His position as King and Judge,as 
well as~ Saviour, must have stamped itself on His face,and 
appeared in His bearing, as well as in Bis words. His 
themes were of commanding importance: His exaltation 
and lordship, as Messiah; the conversion of the nations, 
and there discipling by the testimony of men; and their 
obedience to Him. He issues great commands, and 
gives boundless promises. To Him, as Eternal Son ? 
power was given from eternity (Matt, xi, 27) ; and now 
it is given to Him as God-Man, obedient Servant and 

[*The verb is from the obsolete verb, apto, from ops, the eye.] 

[■fAuto, Him, because wanting in B. C. Sin., and other vers., is 
omitted by the best critics.] 



THE HOLY RESURBECrcOJT. 



Sisen Lord. And as such. Re, with Ascension, took fnll 
possession of that glory which, as Eternal Son,He had be- 
fore the world began. To Hirn, as Jesns, edothee pas- 
exousia, all authority was given, and all power to ex- 
ecute it, "in heaven/' where is the origin, ground and 
seat of His dominion, "and on earth," where this author- 
ity and power are to be exercised over nature and over 
all flesh. (Matt. ix. 27; John xiii, 3; xvii, 2.) 

Thus does He represent Himself as Lord of Heaven and 
of earth, and declare (a) that universal lordship is in His 
hand, and (b) that He exercises the Kingly office of pow- 
er, as of grace. And because of this He claims the dis- 
cipleship and obedience of all nations. "Go ye" (oun, 
therefore, Matt, is not genuine), He said, to the church 
which He had already founded on the confession of His 
Person. As at Pentecost He poured out The Spirit 
on the whole assembled church, so here, not to the apos- 
tles alone, but to all — for no discrimination is made — ■ 
He commits these instructions for the world's evano-el- 
ization. "Go ye," seeking to bring the world into will- 
ing and loving subjection to Me; by truth as the only 
weapon, by persuasion and conviction of the truth as 
the only ground in the heart. "Go ye into all the world" 
— progressive, penetrating, unresting, unlimited move- 
ment this — "and preach the Gospel." That is, every- 
where announce My life, death, resurrection and salva- 
tion (1 Cor. xv, 1-6). Do not preach at, around, away 
from, or something else for, it, but it itself. Teaching 
is for the saved (Tit. ii. 11. 12). The gospel is for sin- 
ners. Do not teach doctrines labeled the gospel. But 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. H5 

preach the glad tidings of grace in all their fulness, 
comprehensiveness and tenderness. Preach them with 
simplicity and fervour, and with all that clearness and 
profound conviction of their importance and blessedness 
which will carry conviction to understanding, conscience 
and heart. Preach them "to every creature." Tell every 
human being that My salvation is for him if he will 
have it. Tell every one the consequences of not believ- 
ing, and of believing, and being baptized. Tell also of 
the signs that paraJcoloutheesei, shall proceed along 
with all them that believe. (Matt, xvi, 17.) 

The gospel must precede, and is a condition of the 
making disciples of all nations. The verb, matheeteuoo? 
(in E.Y., teach,") is used transitively, in N.T., to make a 
disciple of one (John iv, 1; Matt, xiii, 2-; xviii, 20; 
xxvii, 57; Acts xiv, 21; x, 41.) It marks the point 
where one who has not been, is, under the preaching of 
the gospel, willing to become, a disciple. This is shown 
in his being baptized, or if he has been baptized in in- 
fancy, in recognizing the parental act as his own. Hav- 
ing brought them to this point, how to make disciples, 
by leading them to be willing to become disciples, 
Jesus goes on to say, haptizontes (present participle), 
baptizing* them eis to onoma, into the name (Matt, 
xviii, 50), as into Christ, &c. (Pom. vi 3; Gal. iii, 27). 
The eis to &c, means (a) the element in which, (Mark 
i, 9; Pom. vi, 3, 4), (b) the object to which (Matt. 

[*The reading of the T. R. retained by all modern critical editors, 
is found in Cod. Sin. A., and in most Mss. Two Mss. only have 

bavftizantez^] 



116 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

iii, 11; Acts ii, 35), or (c) the authority by which (1 Cor. 
x, 2 ; Acts x, 48) one is baptized. To onoma, the name 
comprehends all that belongs to the person. It is not 
the essence, but the expression and manifestation of the 
essence. The name of God stands for, and comprehends 
the nature ancl all that belongs to God, as revealed (Ex. 
vi). The phrase, hap. eis to on., signifies (a) the sub- 
jective recognition, and (b) the objective admission. 
Paul's word is very strong. By one Spirit we are all 
baptized into one body (1 Cor. xii, 13/ Gal. iii, 27; Rom, 
v, 1) — all become partakers of the nature of God. 

The noun is in the singular, not names, but name — 
one name. The juxtaposition is equal, without distinct- 
ion or division. While there is independency of con- 
sciousness, there is unity of essence. The phrase points 
out both equality and personality. It is a plain state- 
ment of the trinity of the divine nature. And this 
truth, because taught in the same connection in which 
the mission is commanded and the baptism appointed, 
must be fundamental. From this point all christian 
truth must issue, and in it must end. 

"In the name of the Father, ancl of the S<?n, and of 
The Holy Spirit." This formula, now first spoken, 
finds its source in the baptism of Jesus. There, Father, 
Son and Spirit were first tully revealed in adorable un- 
ity. The Father bore, the Son received, witness, and The 
Spirit abode upon Him,*.0.,the Son. The Father had man- 
ifested Himself in sending The Son. The Son had man- 
ifested Himself in coming, and in resurrection, and soon 
would in Ascension. The Spirit would manifest Him- 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 



117 



self in out-pouring. And people become disciples, by 
being baptized into the name of this Three-One God, 
who has thus been manifested. 

Didaskontes autous, teaching them, i. e., the baptized. 
The grace that brings salvation to the lost, teaches the 
saved. The process is, preach the gospel — baptize — 
teach. Give instruction to them,, teach. Teach what? 
Teerein, to have an eye upon, watch narrowly, observe 
to keep, in faith and act together, in living unity, panto-) 
all that I have commanded. Teach the facts and all 
the doctrines which come out of the facts: teach the 
promises and precepts with their foundation and extent: 
teach all things that have been received from My life and 
My words. Tell them everything which I have com- 
manded, and tell them that all is to be observed. 

And lo, I, who now stand before you in My glorified 
humanity, and who will ascend (for otherwise He could 
not be with His disciples in every place and in all time), 
am with you, by My Spirit, for light, strength, comfort, 
assistance, defense, pasas tas hemeras, all the days — 
the dark and distressful, as well as the bright ones — as 
I have been, though not always visibly, present with you 
since My resurrection — eos tees sunteleias ton aioonos, 
until the end of this f»ge, or dispensation (aioii). 

This is the great word to that little company on that 
little mountain, in little Galilee. This is the great task 
for that company. By them the whole world is to be 
won. And yet the whole wisdom and power of the 
world is incapable of winning one soul to God. This is 
the last great resurrection appearance given in Matthew, 



118 



THE HOLY SESUKRECTION. 



and Jesus' last word. It links the church's warfare,, 
work and conquest with His sufferings and death. It 
shows the connection between this work and His resur- 
rection. And its closing words, "lo, I am with you all 
the days," linger, like the song of the summer bird, in 
the soul. 

Jesus' Ninth Appearance-to James. 

Date and circumstances unknown. Place, probably Jerusalem. 

Jesus' Tenth Appearance-to The Eleven. 

Place, Jerusalem, Mount Olives, and the Bethany slope. 
Time, Thursday, May 18th A. D. 30, 

This appearance was in connection with His Ascension, and was 
followed ten days after, Lord's Day, May 28th, A.D. 30, by the 
Descent of the Holy Spirit. 

Mark xvi, 19, 20; Luke xxiv, 49-53; John xx, 30; xxi, 25; Acts i, 

2-14; ii. 

After that He was seen of James. 

Then of all the apostles whom He had chosen. To 
whom He showed Himself alive after His passion, by 
many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days 
and speaking of the things of the kingdom of God: un- 
til the day in which He was taken np, after that He, 
through The Spirit, had given commandments unto them. 
And being assembled together with them, He com- 
manded them that they should not depart from Jeru- 
salem, but wait for the promise of The Father, which, 
saith He, ye have heard of Me. And ye are witnesses 
of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of 
My Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jer- 
usalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. 
For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be 
baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence. 

When they therefore were come together, they asked 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



119 



Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again 
the kingdom to Israel? 

And He said unto them, It is not for you to know 
the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in 
His own power. Bat ye shall receive power after that 
the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be wit- 
nesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, 
and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part (end) of 
the earth. 

So then, after the Lord had spoken unto them — and 
when He had spoken these things — having led them out 
as far as to Bethany, He lifted up His hands and blessed 
them. And it came to pass while He blessed them, while 
they beheld, He was parted from them, and taken up; 
and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And He 
was carried up, and received up into heaven: and sat on 
the- right hand of God. 

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as 
He went up. behold two men stood by them in white ap- 
parel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye 
gp.zing up into heaven? this same Jesus which is taken 
up from you into heaven, shall so (will, eleusatai) come 
in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven. 

And they worshipped Him. 

Then returned they with great joy unto Jerusalem, 
from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a 
Sabbath-day's journey. And they were continually in 
the Temple praising and blessing God. Amen. 

And when they were come in, they went up into an 
(the, to) upper room, where (they then) abode, both Peter 
and James, and John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, 
Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, 
and Simon Zeiotes, and Judas (John) the brother of 
James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and 
supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of 



120 



THE HOLY BESUKEECXIOX. 



Jesus, and with His brethren. The number of names 
together were about one hundred and twelve. 



And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they 
were all with one accoi d in one place. And suddenly 
there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty 
wind, aud it filled all the house where they were sitting. 
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues (^tongues 
parting or distributing themselves), like as of hre, and 
it sat (rested itself), upon each of them. And they 
were all rilled with the Holy Spirit; and began to speak 
with other tongues, as The Spirit gave them utterance. 

And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout 
men out of every nation under heaven. 

Now when this was noised abroad (when this voice 
was heard), the multitude came together, and were con- 
founded (troubled in mind), because that every one 
heard them speak in his own language (dialect). And 
they were all* amazed and marvelled, saying one to an- 
other, Behold are not all these which speak, Galilaeans? 
And how hear we every man in our own tongue (dialect), 
wherein we were born ? Parthians, and Medes, and El- 
amites, and the dwellers in (inhabitants of) Mesopotamia, 
and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, 
Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egvpt. and in the parts of 
Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Pome (Romans 
here present), Jews and Proselytes, Oretes and Arab- 
ians we do hear them speak in our tongues the won- 
derful works of God! And they were all amazed, and 
were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth 
this (what can this be)? 0:hers mocking, said, These 
men are full 01 new ^sweet, gleukous) wine. 



[*Parttes, all, is found in Cod. Sin. but is wanting in B. D. The 
best writers omit it,[ 



THE HOLY RESURKECTIOM". 



121 



But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his 
voice, and spake forth unto them, saying, Ye men of 
Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known 
unto you, and give ear unto my words. For these are 
not drunken, as ye suppose; seeing it is but the third 
hour in the day ; but this is that which hath been spoken 
by the prophet Joel: 

And it shall be in the last days, saith God, 

I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh : 

And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 

And your young men shall see visions, 

And your old men shall dream dreams ; 

Yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days 

Will I pour forth ol my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 

And I will shew wonders in the heaven above, 

And signs on the earth beneath; 

Blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke : 

The sun shall be turned into darkness, 

And the moon into blood, 

Before the day of the Lord come, 

That great and notable day : 

And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the name of the 
Lord shall be saved. 
Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazar- 
eth, a man approved of God unto you by mighty works 
and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the 
midst of you, even as ye yourselves know; Him, being 
delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowl- 
edge of God, ye by the hand of lawless* men did crucify 
and slay: whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs 
of death: because it was not possible that he should be 
holden of it. For David saith concerning him, 
I beheld the Lord always before my face ; 
For he is on my right hand, that 1 should not be moved: 
Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; 
Moreover my flesh also shall dwell in hope : 
Because Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, 
Neither wilt Thou give thy Holy One to see corruption. 
Thou madst known unto me the ways of life ; 
Thou shalt make me full of gladness with thy countenance. 

[*Or, men without the law.] 



122 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



Brethren, I may say unto you freely of the patriarch 
David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb 
is with us unto this day. Being therefore a prophet, 
and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, 
that of the fruit of his loins He would set One upon his 
throne; he foreseeing this spake of the resurrection of 
the Christ, that neither was He left in Hades, nor did His 
flesh see corruption. This Jesus did God raise up, 
whereof we all are witnesses. Being therefore by the 
right hand of God exalted, and having received of the 
Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He hath poured 
forth this, which ye see and hear. For David ascended 
not into the heavens : but he saith himself, 

The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, 
Till I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. 

Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, 
that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus 
whom ye crucified. 

ISTow when they heard this, they were pricked in their 
hearts, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, 
Men and brethren, what shall we do? 

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, ye, and be bap- 
tized every one of you in (upon, epi) the name of J esus 
Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive 
the gift of the Holy Spirit; for the promise is unto you, 
and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as 
many as the Lord our God shall call. 

And with many other words did he testify and exhort, 
saying, Save yourselves from this untoward (crooked) 
generation. 

Then they that received* (having received) his (the, 



\*Asmenoos, gladly, is wanting in the most important Mss., an- 
cient Versions and Church Fathers. They are cancelled by Lach- 
mann, Tischendorf and Alford.] 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 



12:3 



ton,) word were baptized: and the same day there were 
added unto them about three thousand sonls. And they 
continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine (teaching), 
and fellowship, in (the, tee) breaking of bread, and in 
(the. tais) prayers. 

And fear came upon every soul: and many signs were 
done by (through, diet) the apostles. And all that be- 
lieved were together, and had all things common ; and 
they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them 
to all, according as (kathotf) every (any, tis) man had 
need. And they, continuing daily (day by day, contin- 
uing steadfastly), with one accord in the temple, and 
breaking bread from house to house (at home), did eat 
their meat (food) with gladness and singleness of heart, 
praising God, and having favor with all the people 
And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should 
be saved (those there were being saved, soozomonous). 



THE CLOSING WORDS OF THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. 

And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence 
of His disciples, which are not written in this book. But 
these things are written, that ye might believe that 
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing 
ye might have life through His name. And there are 
also many other things which Jesus did, the which if 
they were written every one, I suppose that even the 
world itself could not contain the books which should 
be written. Amen. 



The appearance to James is mentioned only by Paul. 
When, where, and for what object it was granted we are 
not informed. Not improbably its object was the con- 
version of His brother, who hitherto could nut accept 



124 THE HOLY EESUERECTIOX. 

Him as the Messiah (John vii, 5), and who ever after 
is found associated with the apostles.* 

The last appearance was to all the apostles. This 
was in Jerusalem. There were the parting words to be 
spoken, the Ascension to occur, and the foundation of 
the church to be laid. Thither, within a day or two of 
the Ascension, the apostles and others had returned from 
Galilee — perhaps bj express direction of Jesus. 

From Jesus' words at the Supper, and to Mary at the 
tomb, they expected, most probably, that Jesus' return 
to the Father would be open and most august. Inti- 
mations of the day when, may have been given. This 
was Thursday, May 18th, A.D. 30. Besides Mark's in- 
timation, Luke's is the only account of that day's occur- 
rences. He introduces his statemeut by a brief summary 
covering the forty days. While yet in the world J esus 
had shown Himself equally to all, beseeching men to be 
reconciled to God, and seeking to win their confidence 
by services of unwearied love. But they had rejected 
ai.d hated Him and His Father, and had put Him to 
death. Hence, they were not entitled to see Him now 
in resurrection, and on His way to the highest heavens. 
But to those who had received Him as the Christ, the 
Son of God, He, during the forty days, jjaristeesen eau- 

[*Two of Christ's apostles were named James. The elder of 
them. John's brother, was put to death by Herod (Acts xii. 2). 
The other. Jesus' brother. was called The Less. It is not certain which 
of them Paul means. If the first, Paul probably learned it by tradi- 
tion ; if the latter, he might hare had it from James himself when 
he saw him at Jerusalem (Gal. i, 19; ; and who was still living.A.D. 
57, when this epistle was written.] 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



125 



ton, made Himself present, zoonta, living, meta to 
jpathein auton, after His suffering to, and in death. 
While optanomenos, being seen, and legoon ta, speak- 
ing the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, He 
gave to them pollois tekmeeriois, many evidences, so 
established as to be incontestible — the word in classic 
Greek signifies settled, fixed — that He who had been 
dead was alive. There was not, as to this fact the slight, 
est possible room for donbt. This continued aehri tees 
heemeras, until the day in which He was taken up. And 
on that day, filled with events of commanding impor- 
tance and absorbing interest, they not once lost sight of 
Him until He disappeared in the cloud. 

These words are introduced by a word — sunalizomenos 
being assembled — which plainly points to a general gath- 
ering, assembled at a place and time appointed by Jesus. 
About to reveal His last will and instructions, and then 
depart, He wished the apostles and the rest (Acts i, 21) 
to be present. And the significance and solemnity of the 
meeting are seen in this, that no word of the same kind 
is used of any other post-resurrection meeting. 

He had accomplished His work, and upon it, as the 
foundation, had placed the Church's mission. He had 
already breathed The Spirit into His disciples, opened 
their understandings, and given them the first (John xx, 
21-23) and the second (Matt, xxviii, 18-20) parts, and now 
in connection with His Ascension is about to give them 
the third part (Acts i, 8) of His great commission. 
The whole commission is very comprehensive and very 
strong. "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in 



126 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

earth;" this is His authority. "Ye shall be witnesses 
unto Me these were the persons. "Go ye therefore 
this was the command. Its essence is implicit and ab- 
solute obedience: go always and anywhere when He 
bids, hasten when He draws (Philip ran, &c), pause 
when He restrains. Henceforth they were to be of 
great, and their testimony of supreme, importance. 
"Begin at Jerusalem" where my name is a by-word and 
reproach, where atonement has been made, the people 
are being prepared, the Spirit is to be first received, the 
church's foundation laid, and whence the word of God is 
to go forth (Is. ii, 3-5). Widen then the sphere of thy 
labors. Having witnessed in Judaea, the field of My la- 
bors, the land of promise, the first congenial soil, en- 
ter "Samaria," the missionary field between Judaea and 
the Gentiles, and "white already to harvest." Then go 
everywhere, "into all the world," "among all nations," 
"unto the uttermost part of the earth" — so that no re- 
gion, however desolate and unpromising may be left 
unexplored — "and to every creature," how sunken, de- 
based and bestial soever he may be; this was to be the field 
of operations. "Teach," "preach the gospel," "preach 
repentance and remission of sins in My name;" this 
was the work and the message. "He that believeth 
and is baptized shall be saved," "whosoever sins ye re- 
mit they are remitted unto them," "he that believeth 
not shall be damned," "whosoever sins ye retain they 
are retained;" this defines the character, and reveals 
the greatness of the work. This is the assurance to 
those addressed of the unalterable certainty of the results 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 127 

of tlie reception or rejection of Christ. "Baptizing 
them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Spirit;" this was the badge of discipleship. "Teach- 
ing them to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
manded yon;" this was the law of the house. i4 Lo I 
am with you always, even unto the end of the age;" 
this was the assurance of His presence and support, 
and of their success, by His Spirit, until He come again. 

This was their great commission. To live and preach 
worthily in the exalted position in which it placed 
them, they must have divine aid. And "idou, hehold" — 
a word which expresses the uniform intervention of this 
aid — "I send the promise of the Father which ye have 
heard of Me." Xor must they, from apprehension of 
personal danger from the Council, from love to their 
native Galilee, nor from a desire to get at work, leave 
the city, but "sit still, hzthisate, until enduseesthee, ye 
he clothed with power from on high." The explanation 
which defines this word by equipping, or furnishing, is 
superficial, and robs it of its profound importance. In 
the Old Testament [Sept. Ver.) this word is constantly 
used to express the sudden afflatus of The Spirit. Gid- 
eon. Amazai, Zachariah, &c, were "clothed" with The 
Spirit. In the ew Test, we have, "clothed with Christ" 
(Rom. xiii. 14; Gal. iii, 27). So here, clothed with, not 
exousia, authority, but dunamin, power ; hence.inwardly. 
It is that inward power (vs. S) that entire, internal pen- 
etration and actual possession which completely pene- 
trates and clothes the moral nature, which gives evidence 
of its presence by the expression of power correspond- 



128 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



ing thereto, and which is received always, but only from, 
and by, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. 

This was the complement of the in-breathing. The 
latter, though real and precedent — for no in-breathing, 
no baptism^ — was but provisional. For The Spirit went 
away with Jesus, and was, when He came, sent down by 
Him from Heaven. This was from Him as the As- 
cended, as that was from Him the Risen, Head. By 
this He would initiate them into Ascension, as He had 
by that into Resurrection. Now, instead of getting con- 
stantly drawn into and being defiled by evil within and 
around,instead of, though seeking, finding notperfect rest, 
they had liberty and triumph, could tell of the power of 
this new life, could gather the church on resurrection 
ground,and were possessed of that susceptibility by which 
they could be gradually. prepared for the suddenly com- 
ing fulness. This — for the order is perfect — is the 
spark, that the flame, this the dew, that the copious 
shower, this gives intelligence of the new man, the con 
sciousness of being according to Christ, which must pre- 
cede the service for Him ; that, the power for that ser- 
vice. This fits men as vessels to receive, that, as chan- 
nels through which to pour forth, 'the fulness of God. 
In fine, by this, they will know when that comes, that 
it is The Spirit of Christ, the glorified God-Man, who is 
so gloriously poured out, making their testimony to 
Him to be felt in intellect, conscience and heart, to 
the conversion of men — the blessed results of the livino- 
waters flowing abroad. 

But "tarry ye in Jerusalem," for the Revealer and 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



129 



Minister"of the promises which are yea and amen in Me," 
for Him who is the supreme gift in which all others ter- 
minate, and without which you cannot begin your work. 
"For John truly baptized with water" — I indeed, said 
John,baptize with water unto repentance.Tbis cannot give 
cleanness of heart. But it is the sign of a higher baptism : 
"The Mightier than I cometh. He shall baptize you 
with the Holy Spirit;" and this is an action on the soul. 
These words were now recalled by the true Baptist. "John 
baptized with water, but ye" — in whom I have breathed 
The Spirit, whose understanding I have opened, who 
now are, in a profound sense, spiritual men, i.e., organs 
of The Spirit, "ye shall be baptized m" (m, in all the 
passages,) overwhelmed, most richly endued, "with the 
Holy Spirit." Water refreshes the body, and revives its 
strength. This will give freshness and strength to the 
soul. Water changes the outward condition of the body, 
as to purity. This will completely penetrate all your 
mental and moral powers, give that sanctification which 
is the end and aim of man's renewal, power also propor- 
tionate to the work, and the stamp of Divine authority 
upon what you, under the Spirit's direction, do and say. 

John adds, "and with fire," Fire, like water, is an 
emblem of The Spirit, as "The Spirit of burning." Fire 
consumes matter. The Spirit destroys the power of the 
old nature, thus showing its destiny. The sacred fire 
by its pervading energy dissolved from the bands of this 
world, what was offered in sacrifice, and thus set it free 
to ascend, as sweet incense, to heaven. So The Spirit 
sets free the mental and moral powers from the bands 



130 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

of this world, that they may be wholly consecrated to 
God. He kindles h fire in the soul, which, while the 
man muses, burns, which makes one fervent in spirit, 
and full of energy. He purifies the lips — as He did Isai- 
ah's — so that the thoughts burning in the soul shall 
come out through the tongue of fire; And He also pu- 
rifies the people, that they may be zealous of gOod works. 

All this was the preparation for that eventful day — for 
the baptism which was to come "not many days hence." 

During the forty days Jesus had spoken much about 
the kingdom of God. And His now speaking of the 
baptism of the Spirit* suggested the question, "Lord, 
apoJcathistaneis, wilt Thou restore again,&o,A" The verb 
is used in classic Greek, to express restoration to former 
place and state. And it has a similar meaning in Matt, 
xii, 13; Mark iii, 5; viii, 23; Luke vi, 10. So here. The 
disciples had no doubt but that the kingdom would be 
restored. Jesus' death, resurrection, instructions, com- 
mission, and promise of The SpirH had dissipated the 
Jewish and carnal ideas which they had entertained 
(Luke xix, 11, &c). They saw that The Spirit would 
be in that kingdom. Their understandings - had been 
opened to understand the Scriptures. In them they had 
read of that visible kingdom for the ancient people of 
God, of which Gabriel — who surely could not have had 
the carnal Jewish ideas — spake to the Virgin (Luke i, 
24), and unto which all nations should come. Though 
they surely could not, after vs. 3, cherish any conception 



[*Most critical scholars are agreed that lioimen oun sunelthountis, 
when they had come together, vs. 6, refers to the meeting on that day.] 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 131 

of that kingdom inconsistent with its spiritual character, 
vet they shared not in that tendency, now so wide- spread, 
to spiritualize everything. They received the promise 
and prophecy concerning that kingdom just as they 
had been given. They saw the close connection between 
this outward kingdom and the inward conversion of the 
Jews. They ask not whether it would be re-established, 
for of that they had no doubt. And Jesus, by silence on 
.this point, confirmed that conviction. But they asked 
as to the time. Dost Thou restore — the verb, apokath- 
istanais, is in the present tense — now, en too chronoo, 
in this time, the kingdom to Israel? And as they based 
their expectation of this restoration of the kingdom in 
its outward form, upon the prophecy and promise as 
they understood them, their question practically was, 
"Will it now be restored in the sense in which we un- 
stand it was promised? And will it be introduced by 
the power from on high? 

No epoch can be affirmed of an imaginary event. 
But Jesus affirms an epoch of this kingdom as a reality, 
in the apostles' conception of it. He justified the strong 
desire for its coming. The New Testament, as well as the 
Old, speaks of it. And it will come. 

But the time when? This feature of the question 
Jesus rebuked. It showed that they were not having 
that waiting, that quiet and becoming spirit to what He 
had said which they ought. They were impatient as to 
the time. "It is not," He said," "for you (Matt, xiii, 32) 
to know cTwonous, the periods, spaces of time forwards, 
e kainous, or epochs, the appointed periods (1 Thes. v, 



132 THE HOLT BESUEEECTIOX. 

lj. which, not TJteos, God, but ho Pateer, the Fathei\ 
ethetho, has fixed, in His own exousia, authority and 
power. The kingdom is sure, but only after epochs, 
which the Father had determined, and. for the present, 
concealed. 

But, instead of receiving this information, ye shall, 
not many days hence — in contrast with the times and 
seasons — receive durianin.poicerSiom on high — rhepro- 
phetical (Is. xxxii, 15 i and oft-repeated expression for 
heaven — by and after The Holy Spirit's coming upon 
yon. And ye shall be. not prophets of the future, but 
workers in the present, and martures, witnesses of the 
past — witnesses to. or martyrs tor. mle. as the case may 
be. "While recognizing the coming kingdom, whose 
foundations they were, by their testimony and by the 
power of The Spirit to lay in the convictions of men. 
He calls attention to present and practical work in the 
kingdom of grace. They were to proclaim the works of 
God, in Christ, and Christ's death andresnrrecti-m for the 
salvation of men. This was work enough to occupy all 
their time and thoughts. And it was worthy of their 
noblest aim and efforts; for no work is more holy, 
comprehensive, and. though arduous, honorable. 

This was Jesus' last word. I: was given to all. " It 
constituted the whole company of believers witness- 
bearers and martvrs for Him during all the time until 
He comes again. Such, always and everywhere, even to 
the uttermost ends or the earth, must they be durinor 
the whole period of His absence. HE GIVES XO 
PEOMISE OF THE WOELD'S COXYEESIOS 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 133 

BEFOEE RE COMES. This was not in their com- 
mission. Their business was to preach His gospel. 
Their testimony must be given regardless of the conse- 
quences either to themselves or to their hearers — given 
in the power of The Spirit— given actively and efficiently 
while they were watching and waiting for their Lord. 

Let us now look back through the appearances of 
Jesus, and endeavor to find out what was His object in 
them. There were ten post-resurrection, and three 
post- ascension appearances. Five were given the day of 
His resurrection. One of these was to Mary Magdalene, 
at the sepulchre, about 8 or 9 A.M.; one to one group 
of the women, shortly after, on their way to the city; 
one to Clophas and his companion, on the way to, and 
at, Emmaus, in the afternoon and evening; one to Peter, 
in Jerusalem, about, or just after sunset; and one to the 
Eleven (Thomas absent) and others, in Jerusalem, and 
after dark. One week later one was given in Jerusalem? 
to the apostles, Thomas being present. The next two 
'were in Galilee. One of them was to se^en disciples 
at the sea of Tiberias, and the other was to the Eleven, 
and above five hundred others, on a mountain. The 
next one was to James, His brother, time and place un- 
known — perhaps in Jerusalem, perhaps in his Galilaean 
home. And the last one was in Jerusalem and on Ol- 
ivet, on the day of His ascension. Three of these were 
to individuals, Mary Magdalene, Peter and James. 
One was to two persons (the Emmaus one), one was 
to seven (the sea of Tiberias one), and the other three 



134 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

were to many, one being to over five hundred people. 
The first appearance was on April 9, the last on May 18 th. 
Some were in houses, some in the open air, and all of 
them long enough in time, and varied enough in inci- 
dents, to allow those who saw them to decide intelligently 
as to them being realities. 

One purpose of the five granted on the first Lord's 
day was to convince His followers of the reality and com- 
pleteness of ITis resurrection. And the object in them all 
was, not merely the proving of the fact that He actually 
had arisen, but also the establishment in their minds of 
the identity of His Person as risen, with His Person as 
crucified. Thus would He revive and confirm their 
faith in Him as the Christ — the foundation of which had 
been laid during His life, but had been greatly shaken 
by His death. And the reason why He would establish 
this is most important. His resurrection was salvation, 
first to Himself (Is. xlix, 8j 2 Cor. vi, 2), and next, to 
us. As He expiated sin for us in dying, so He becomes 
life for us in rising again (Acts xiii, 38, 39). His ap- 
pearances were to them, and, as established, to us, im- 
movable assurances of both facts. We live in Him. 

Besides the general purposes, each appearance had a 
special one. In the first one Jesus comforted the one, 
Mary, who so ardently sought His lost body. In the sec- 
ond He, through the women, made an appointment to 
meet His brethren in Galilee, as through Mary He 
sent a message to them concerning His ascension. 
In the third He re-animated the dying hopes of the two* 
disciples, and in the fourth one He raised up the penitent 



THE HOLY RESUKKECTIOX. 135 

Peter, with assurances of forgiveness. In the next two, 
after having satisfied His disciples of His identity, He 
explained to them, from the Scriptures, the necessity of 
His death and resurrection, opened their understanding 
to understand them, imparted to them The Spirit, and 
gave to them His commission. In the next one He res- 
stored Peter to the apostleship.and in the next blessed His 
brother James with conversion (John viii, 5), and with 
a call to the apostleship. And in the last one He gave 
His final instructions, and impressed upon His followers 
that powerful missionary spirit which lasts to this day. 
Each of His three post-ascension appearances had also a 
special object. The one to Stephen, near Jerusalem, 
and shortly after Pentecost, was for his personal com- 
fort, and for a testimony to the Jews. The one to Saul 
of Tarsus, near Damascus, some months later, was for 
his conversion, and for his call and introduction into 
the apostleship among the Gentiles. And as in the last 
post-resurrection ones He gave His instructions con- 
cerning the planting of the church, and the preaching 
of the gospel for a witness among all nations during 
this dispensation, so, in His last post-ascension ones, 
granted to John in Patmos, sixty years after Ascension, 
He showed through him, to the church, her uneven 
and sorrowful history during this dispensation, and her 
triumphs when He comes. Here is a wisely graduated 
progression. These appearances, when studied in their de- 
velopment, as seen in the continuous narrative, show 
unity and completeness of plan. And this plan is pro- 
foundly psychological, and holily organic. And all this 



136 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

shows that the appearances could not possibly have had 
a subjective origin in any apostle, nor in one or all of 
the writers. Each and all could only have originated in 
one mind,, and that the mind of Jesus Himself. The 
appearances must, all of them, have been objective. 
And the plan shows that the object of them was im- 
measurably more than merely to work in the minds of 
the disciples the conviction that He (Jesus) had arisen 
from the dead. 

We return to the narrative. One great object of 
Jesus' coming was the settlement of the question as to 
the lawful sovereignty over the earth, This, to be 
complete, must be over all the forms and forces of 
matter, as well as over those of sin, and over the in- 
tellect and affections of man. There must also be the law- 
ful victory over the usurper, and his consequent expulsion 
with that of sin and sorrow, from the earth. This could 
be accomplished only by One who had all of nature's 
forces under his control. If J esus be the Champion, 
He must be all victorious. And He was. By His 
faith He had overcome the world. By The Spirit's power 
and sword (i.e., "the word of God") He had overcome the 
devil. By His holy life and expiating death He had over- 
come the flesh which had corrupted us through sin, the 
law (by satisfying its demands) whice had condemned 
us because of sin, and death which overtakes us because 
of the condemnation of the law. By these victories, He, 
as a member of humanity,had restored it to its true place. 
His resurrection was a proof of this restoration. But 
resurrection is only a partial victory over the physical 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 137 

world By moral victories Jesus had wholly overcome 
the worlcl in its ethical aspects. By the same victories He 
had overcome it in its physical aspects, so far as these 
related to its solid parts: partially, during life, by such 
victories as the turning of water into wine, by the feed- 
ing of thousands by a few loaves and fishes, and by 
walking upon the water; and wholly by His resurrection. 
To complete these victories, He must overcome the world 
in its aerial aspects. T; at is, He mustascjnd. Here, the 
"must," which appears so constantly in His life, comes 
into full force. Ascension is a necessity to, as well as a 
crown of, victory. How otherwise could He show that all 
the forces of nature are under His absolute control? Or, 
that in Him humanity realizes its destination, which, 
from the beginning, was to serve as a free instrument 
for the operations of the infinite Creator, God: "Thou 
didst set him over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast 
put all things under his feet." 

On another ground, also, Ascension "must" be, and 
hence was, a reality. As far back as April, A.D,27, Jesus 
had plainly intimated to ISTicodemusHis own Ascension as 
the Son of Man to the local Heaven. And He gave as the 
ground of, and reason for, this fact, viz: that He had des- 
cended therefrom (John iii, 13). His words,"came down 
from heaven," plainly declare His consciousness of having 
Himself lived in Heaven as His true native place- 
And to that Heaven must He personally return. Sub- 
sequently, in A. D. 29, He lepeated the same fact to a 
crowd: "What! and if ye shall see the Son of Man as- 
cending where He was before." (John vi 62.) This 



138 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 



ascension must be the opposite of "coming down." Hence 
it could not be His death. This fact He expressed by 
huproothenai,lifted uj), but never by anabainein,asceiid- 
He again said, after His resurrection, "I am not yet 
ascended, but I ascend" (John xx. 17). And after the 
historical fact (of ascension), this same verb was used 
by the apostles to express that fact. (Eph. iv, 8-10; 
Acts ii, 34.) 

This Ascension was,furtker,a necessary factor in Jesus' 
personal development. When He came down^he/iuton ek. 
enoose, He emptied Himself \ morphee Theou, oftlieform 
of God, and took upon Himself the form of a servant." 
Both acts were conditions necessary to His human ex- 
istence, in order to His work upon earth. But that 
work being finished, He must, of necessity, resume "the 
form of God," of which He had emptied Himself. This 
was in His view when He said in His High-priestly pray- 
er, "Now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with the glory 
which I had with Thee before the world was." The an- 
swer to this prayer necessitated Ascension; and it was 
for Him a postulate of faith. By it His Person, as the 
Son of Man, was elevated to the Divine state which He 
had possessed as Son of God. By it, and in His Person, 
was God's design in respect to humanity (and to the 
Universe) perfected. Through Him, the ascended Man, 
is preached the forgiveness of sins. In Him all be- 
lievers are one. In Him are they raised up, and made 
to sit in heavenly places. Through Him came Pente- 
cost, whereby His baptism becomes partaken of by be- 
lievers, and they become, in moral being, like Him. 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 139 

And this must be followed by Parousia, whereby their 
bodily condition must become like His, and His ascen- 
sion become theirs. 

Further, the living waters must flow "from the throne 
of God and the Lamb." Heaven, not earth, must be the 
point of departure of The Spirit. He must come, as 
The Spirit of Jesus, consummated as The Christ, by the 
complete glorification of His nature; as The Spirit ot 
The Son, formally restored to the glory which He had 
with The Father before the world was; as the bestow- 
ment — for this was the prerogative of royalty — as The 
Spirit of The Father, sent from Him by the Son. Only 
when the Son was re-instated in the pientitude of the Di- 
vine condition, and glorified in Heaven, could The Spirit 
come down officially, and glorify Him on earth. And thus 
only could He (Jesus) live in the heart of believers, and 
act through them on the world. Ascension, hence, was 
a necessity to the perpetuation of His cause in the world. 

Up to the last moment Jesus faith and disposition 
were, without intermission and without wavering, turned 
to the eternal light of God. Thus He, through The 
Spirit, purified His Body into heavenly light. Thus 
was it thoroughly prepared for full glorification. And 
what remained but that it should be glorified in Heaven? 

This was the third feature of His glorification. The 
hour for this consummation had come — Thursday, May 
16th, A,D. 30. And the Narratives tell us how it was 
accomplished. Of their genuineness there has never been 
any doubt. Nor ought there to be any of the fact they 



140 THE HOLT BEST/ERECTION. 

tell. It was publicly announced immediately afterwards in 
Jerusalem (Acts ii, 33, 34). It was constantly taught by 
the Apostles, and firmly held by the early church as an 
article of faith. (Horn. viii. 34; x, 6; Eph. i. 19, 20; ii, 5, 
6; iv, 8, 10; Col. iii, 1; 1 Tim.iii, 16; 1 Pet. iii, 22.) And 
in the Hebrews more weight is attached to Jesus' as- 
cension than to His resurrection. Jesus had finished 
all His instructions. He had — as the participle, suna- 
lizomenos, having assembled, clearly shows — brought 
them specially together in order to take leave of them. 
The final meeting was in some house in Jerusalem. 
Theie He began His talk, during which — as the com- 
parison of the two Narratives suggests — He led them 
out of the house and city, eoos (pros. Alex.) eis Bethr 
anian, in the direction of, near to, in the neighborhood, 
perhaps sight, of Bethany, which lay at the foot, or on 
the slope, of Olivet, a mile from its summit, and on the 
farther side from Jerusalem. This slope was the scene 
of His deepest humiliation and sorrow; and its brow, 
of His sublimest elevation. And on that mountain 
His feet shall stand when He comes again.* (Ez. xi, 
23; Zech. xiv, 4.) On the projected spur of the Mount, 
which overhangs Bethany, and in a recess furnished by 
the hills, is a spot which best meets all the conditions 
of the narratives. Stanley remarks: "On the wild up- 
lands, which immediately overhang the village, He with- 
drew from the eyes of His disciples, in a seclusion 
which could nowhere else be found so near the stir of a 

[*Mount Olivet lies between Jerusalem (from which it is separ- 
ated by the valley of Jehoshephat), and Bethany (from which it is 
separated by a little ridge of hills.)] 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 



141 



mighty city — a long ridge of Olivet screening those hills 
and those hills the village beneath them, from all sight 
or sound of the city behind, the view opening only on the 
wide waste of desert rocks and ever-descending valleys, 
into the depths of the distant Jordan and its mysterious 
lake. At this point the last interview took place. 'He led 
them ont as far as Bethany,' and 'they returned' probably 
by the direct road over the summit of Mount Olivet."* 

In all former post-resurrection disappearances Jesus 
vanished suddenly from sight. How? and whither? no 
one knew. He had said, "I go to the Father." The 
coming of the promised Spirit will be proof of this fact. 
"For if I go, I will send Him to you." Now, about to 
leave the scene of His labors and sorrows, He will depart 
from them visibly, so that they, by the testimony of 
their senses, can declare that He, in His humanity, had 
ascended to Heaven; and that they, after the coming of 
The Spirit, could say, "He lives! He lives with the Fa- 
ther! He lives for us!" 

He led them to the brow of Olivet. Jerusalem, 
where He had been rejected and slain, where His gos- 
pel would be first preached, and the foundation of His 
church be laid, lay in full view before Him. He was, 
while walking, speaking to them as a Prophet and King, 
who would establish a Heavenly kingdom on earth. 
They now see that while saying, "Ye shall be witnesses 
unto Me unto the uttermost part of the earth,"He — as the 
typical practice ever had been — lilted up His hands over 
them. It was the blessing of the departing yet remain- 



]?Sinai and Palestine, pages 189, 190.] 



■ 142 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

ing — "with you always" — Lord, as High Priest. The 
Aaronic high priest thus blessed the people as he came 
forth from the Temple (Lev. ix, 22). And Jesus, who 
came forth visibly from the invisible world for the last 
time till He comes again, and is just about to return to 
Heaven, there to act as our High Priest, blessed His dis- 
ciples. Thus the marks of His atoning sacrifice were 
beginning already to be glorified in His hands. This act 
was, further, the sealing to them of the results of His 
Resurrection ; a sign and pledge also of the bestowments 
of "the Power from on high," which His hands would 
soon be, and never cease, giving; and a sample of His 
actings as "Priest upon the throne" during "the times 
and seasons" until He comes as King to reign. Kai 
en to eulogein, and while in the act of Messing them, 
hai tauta eipoon, and while saying these things — Le., 
the final words closing with "the uttermost part of the 
earth" (Acts i, 4-8) — -and while hlepontoon autoon, they 
were intently gazing with a clear, continuous gaze un- 
til He was hidden in the cloud (reminding us of His 
theooreete, &c, ye shall see the Son of Man ascending* 
&c, John vi, 62), diestee (second aorist intransitive) 
autoon, He drew hack, and separated Himself from 
them, and epeerthee (first aorist indicative, passive), was 
lifted up (the oeginning of Ascension), kai dneleepes- 
thee, was home, or carried up (nature's law of gravit- 
ation being obedient to His will), gradually ascending, 
and, while going up, blessing His disciples, kai nephelee 
hupelaben auton, and a cloud, passing beneath, received 
Him, and hid Him from their eyes — and this was the 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 143 

end of the ascent as visible to tliem. Kai anepkereto 
eis ton ouranon* was home or carried up (the verb an 
ephereto, implies some kind of a conveyance), into hea- 
ven. This was His assumption (1 Tim. iii, 15). The 
cloudy pillar was the heavenly chariot which, in the 
Theophanies of the Old Testament, carried Him, as the 
Angel of His (God's) Presence, before the people. Here 
it was the cloud. And the use of the verb in Acts with- 
out the accompanying words, eis ton ouranon, of Luke, 
shows that already, when The Acts was written, the As- 
cension was a recognized fact in the consciousness of the 
primitive church. The verb, epeerthe, lifted up, des- 
cribes, locally, the experience of Jesus in the ascending, 
and spiritually, the act of the Father in raising Him to 
a higher position, and to greater power. The whole 
description shows that His departure was not 
the troubled passing of a mortal from earth, need- 
ing prayer and support, but the magnificent move- 
ment of a Conqueror, who, having overcome all foes, 
goes away, leaving behind Him the blessing of His 
glorified Being. And the physical features in which 
His Ascension is portrayed, form a picture which 
has been celebrated in christian song; and also in 
christian art, by Raphael, Titian and Paul Veronese. 
And the present participle, poreomenon, going (Acts 
i, 11), expresses His motion from one place to another, 
and His own voluntary action therein. Upward wa< 
He borne until He disappeared in a cloud. Onward, 

[*This clause is wanting in Sin., and in some other Mss.;but 
most critical editors retain it. The. weight of Mss. authority is 
vastly in its favor.] 



144 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



tlieleeluthota (par. per. mid.) tons ouranous, passing, 
Himself, through — not u into" as our Version has it — the 
heavens (Heb. iv, 14), He ascended hujperanoo pantoon 
toon ouranoon, "far above all heavens" (Eph. iv, 10), 
into the "Heavens of heavens" (Dent. x,l4; 1 Kings viii^ 
27; Ps. lxviii, 33; cxlviii, 4), to the right hand of God 
— the place of majesty, where the self -revelations of 
Grod take place, whence the manifestations of Divine 
power proceed, and where, shortly afterwards, He was 
seen by Stephen, as he, full of the Holy Spirit, looked 
up into the opened heavens. 

Such was the sublimely fitting close of His life on 
earth. Such He knew it would be. The consciousness of 
His Divine Sonship, Messiahship, mission, and of most 
certain victory had given its peculiar current to His 
thought, and explains the peculiarity of His intercourse 
with men. Lifted up into the sunshine of His antici- 
pated resurrection and ascension, He could, as Ho 
moved in the midst of men bowed down by sorrow, or 
crushed by the terror of death, lift them up. With 
most exquisite human feeling He could sympathize with 
men. Yea, more. Since His own soul was in the sun- 
shine of those deathless regions which lay for beyond 
the tomb in the garden, He could, w T ith the power of His 
anticipated triumph, cheer and sustain them. Before 
the brightness of that sunshine the prospects and prom- 
ises of earth had disappeared, its sorrows, privations 
and sufferings had been patiently borne, its proper en- 
joyments had been sweetened and sanctified, and His 
soul, when the dark, heavy clouds of death were gath- 



THE HOLY RESUKEECTION. 145 

H 

ered over Calvary, was in perfect peace. Man cannot ful- 
ly describe what He endured during life, and especially 
during the hours preceding death. But many may 
know something of the sunshine of resurrection which 
illumined His soul. By the introduction of sin the Di- 
vine harmony had been disturbed: man had L st his place 
of blessing, and God had been denied His glory. But 
the Son of Man in His dying, put things into their 
proper places. Sin was expiated. Death was dethroned. 
Man's blessing was secured, and God's glory was estab- 
lished. Having scattered in the realms of death the 
seeds of resurrection-life which will, at His second com- 
ing, spring forth in resurrection bodies, He came forth la- 
dened with all the fruits of victory. These effected vast 
and most beneficent changes in the history of man, and 
in the destiny of earth. These opened the way for the 
pouring of resurrection-life into the race, and the lift- 
ing of it up. These ushered in the morning of the new 
creation, and prepared the way for the kingdom of God- 
As the Anointed Man He had walked through the va- 
rious paths of life, and had presented therein the first 
untainted human fruits to God. As the Risen Man He 
had showed Himself alive, and with hands extended in 
blessing, had ascended to Heaven. He thus became the 
exalted Man. As such He sits on the right hand of 
God symbol this, of His omniscience, omnipresence 
and omnipotence. In Him dwells all the fulness of the 
God-head bodily (Col. ii, 9). Proof, this, of His right 
to, and future investiture with royal dominion over 
all the earth (Ps. cx, 1; Dan. vii, 13, 14; Phil, ii, 10). 



14:6 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

On that throne He sits, carrying on His work of bless- 
ing. There will He sit, until all who are of His risen 
flesh shall have been brought in to form the "one new 
man," and have come to the measure of the stature of the 
fulness of Himself (Eph. v, 30), until He comes in the 
clouds of heaven — as assuredly He will — to occupy His 
own throne, and His toes be made His footstool. Rest, 
honored Jesus, in Thy triumph! We adore Thee! We 
rejoice. If we follow Thee where Thou wast, we forget 
not where Thou art. Born in a stable, Thou litest in the 
statliest of palaces. Cradled in a manger, Thou occu- 
piest the chair of kingliest state. A Sufferer Irom 
penury,and possessed of no place to lay Thy head,Thou art 
now Heir of all things. Endurer of contradiction against 
Thyself, Thou art now adored and worshipped by the 
•hosts of heaven, and by the truly noble and holy of earth. 
Once Thou wast without form or comliness in the eyes 
of men, who saw in Thee no beauty to make Thee an 
object of desire. Now, the brightness of the beams which 
irradiate from thy glorious countenance fills all heaven 
with light, and makes the inhabitants thereof, and all 
those who are going thither, to shout aloud for joy. 

This gladness is most disinterested. This ecstacy of 
delight which fills our souls as we see Thee ascending, 
begins and ends with Thee. It is Thy triumph as 
that is related to Thyself that makes us clap our hands 
with joy, and bids us to summon all nature to share in 
our gladness, and join in our adoration, our homages, 
and our praise of Thee. 

But we also find our souls pouring forth praise and 



THE HOLY RESURKECTION. 147 

gratitude to Thee, Thou triumphant Christ, for all that 
Thou in Thy life, death, resurrection and ascension hast 
done for us. Thou hast settled the question of a life 
triumphant over death, and thus hast most thoroughly 
satisfied man's original instinct and longing after immor- 
tality. The resurrection and exaltation of the whole 
man, body and soul, are assured. Thou hast settled 
forever the whole question of sin in all its aspects and 
issues. Put to death because our offenses were upon 
Thee, and "tasting death for every man," Thou hast re- 
moved every hindrance out of the way, and hast become 
the Author of eternal salvation unto all them who be- 
lieve and obey Thee. Thou hast forced open (not by 
violence, but in the way of righteousness,) the gates of 
the grave, and death at Thy bidding must give up its 
prey. Thou hast opened the Kingdom of Heaven for 
all believers. And now all who approach thereto by 
the way of Thy cross find a welcome entrance. And 
as we meditate upon these, and all the blessings, bene- 
fits and privileges that come to us from and through 
Thee, Thou ascending Lord, our souls cannot repress 
their exultation. TVe are happy as we see Thee ascend- 
ing. Shaters of Thy triumph, we follow Thee now by 
faith, and will, in our resurrection- bodies be caught up 
to meet Thee in the air by and by. 

The cloud which had received, and was ascending with, 
Him, had disappeared in the upper distance. And as 
the disciples, forgetful of all else atenizontes eesan, were 
gazing intently — into (eis) the (ton) heaven, upon por- 



14:8 THE HOLY RESURRECT ION. 

euomenou autou, Him going, lo, suddenly and unex- 
pectedly, two men in shining garments pareisteeJceisan, 
were present to them. Were they Moses and Elias ? or, 
were they two future witnesses ? (Kev. xi, 3), or the two 
that stood by the women at the tomb? (Luke xxiv, 4). 
Or were they two of those who had come out of the 
tombs on the morning of Jesus' resurrection? (Matt, 
xxvii, 53.) They addressed the disciples as Galileans. 
Was it because they themselves had been Galileans? 
Or were they angels in the form or appearance of men? 
We cannot tell. We only know that they had come 
from heaven to tell men on earth of the fruitlessness of 
looking after Jesus. He had gone up into Heaven, no 
more to return until the times and seasons had been 
filled up. Until then He would be seen on earth no 
more. But then He would come again; come in like 
manner as they had seen Him go away, that is, in His 
glorified humanity, visibly, in glory, and with His hands 
stretched out in blessing; come tof stand, as He had just 
then stood, on Mount Olivet (Zech. xiv, 2). 

This was their message. Soon as it was delivered 
they disappeared from view. The heavens were silent 
and serene. The circling worlds moved on in their 
stately orbits, but to their utmost bounds they felt the 
undulations of this magnificent movement — a most fit- 
ting crowning of a career so beauteous and beneficent, 
and whose tragic close had saved a race and a world. 

Jesus had gradually raised the minds of His follow- 
ers to a new conception of the unspeakable greatness of 
His work, and the infinite excellence of His Person. 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 149 

Just now had they witnessed a sight of the most exalted 
character. The rising slowly, majestically, and with- 
out visible agency, and the vanishing into the depths of 
heaven which they witnessed, convinced them that the 
Conqueror of Satan and death was the Master of nature's 
laws, and they reverently obeyed His will. They saw that 
the body filled completely by The Spirit was capable 
of partaking of exalted power and of the highest life. 
They knew from the Heavenly visitants that the gates 
of glorv had opened to let their Master in, and that the 
promises would be fulfilled in their enduement with 
power. This thrilled, this filled their hearts with ecs- 
tatic joy. They could contain no more. Another as- 
surance that He should come again, pledge this of the 
victory of His cause, was a blessedness greater than 
their hearts could contain. John xiv, 28, and xvii, 11, 
had passed into an abiding history for the church. As 
did the women on the morning of the resurrection, as 
did the five hundred on a mountain in Galilee, so did 
this company. They worshipped Him. They gave 
Him while ascending, and when exalted at the Father's 
right hand the same solemn adoration that they gave 
to God. They could not be mourners. For their Mas- 
ter would no more be exposed to the outrages and 
wrongs of men. His death had been crowned with the 
most exalted triumph. The sheaf of the first fruits had 
been presented, and was being waved before the Lord. 
They could not be petitioners. Prayer would be proper 
by and by. JE>ut this was the feast of resurrection, and 
praise was its only expression in worship. They were 



150 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

filled, they, with great joy, returned to Jerusalem. And 
there, with one accord, with most intimate union inward 
and outward, publicly ana undisturbedly, in the Temple 
— proof, this, that the Sanhedrim did not believe their 
own report about the Body — were continually airounte» 
Theon, praising God, i.e. His Person, km enlogountes 
Theon, and Messing God i.e.. thanking Him for His 
benefits. So the Shepherds glorified and praised God 
at Jesus' birth. But how vast was the distance traversed 
between the two acts of homage and praise! The next 
ten days were passed quietly, and in united hearty 
prayer. This show that they were no enthusiasts, and 
yet that they, with an assured confidence, expected the 
fulfillment of the promise. Pentecost came, and with 
it the Comforter. They were all filled with the Holy 
Spirit, and '-went forth and preached everywhere, the 
Lord worldlier with them, and confirming the word with 
signs following. Amen. 

Jesus' Post- Ascension Appearances. 

BIS yiRSI OXE. 

Place : Jerusalem. Time : Soon after His ascension. Person to 
whom : Stephen, the able cleacen. and first martyr of the new-born 
church. 

Acts vii. 55. 56. 

But He (/Stephen) being full of the Holy Spirit, 
looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of 
God. and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. 
And he said. Behold. I see the heavens opened, and the , 
Son of Man stand mo- on the riffht hand ot God. 

This ajjpearance to Stephen was for his consolation. 
Some time later Jesus gave His 



THE HOLY RESURRECTTOX. 



151 



Second Post-ascension Appearance. 

The place: Suburbs of Damascus. The time: about one year 
after the Ascension. Person: Saul of Tarsus. 

This appearance to Saul was for his conversion. The narratives 
of this event are found in 

Acts ix, 1-6; xxii, 4-21; xxvi, 9-18; 1 Cor. xv, 7, 8. 

Luke's historical statement is as follows : 

And Saul yet breathing out threatening^ and slaughter 
against the disciples of the Lord, went into the high 
priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus, that if 
he found (should find) any (who were, ontas) of this 
way, whether they were men or women, he might bring 
them bound into Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he 
came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round 
him a light from heaven ; and he tell to the earth and 
heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why perse- 
cutest thou Me? 

And he said, Who art Thou, Lord % 

And He* said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.** 
Arise and go into the city, .and it shall be told thee 
what thou must do. 

Paul's own personal statements about this appearance 
are as follows: 

And last of all he was seen of me, as of one born out 
of due time. 1 verily thought with myself that I ought 
to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus ot 
Nazareth. Which things I also did in Jerusalem: and 
many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having re- 

[*Ho KurioSy the Lord, of T. R. is wanting in all the best Mss., 
and is omitted by all the best critics.] 

[**The words, "It is hard hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 
And he trembling and astonished said. Lord, what wilt Thou have 
me to do? And the Lord said unto him,'' are not found in a single 
Greek manuscript in Actsix; are omitted by all critical scholars, 
and are thrown out in the R. V.] 



152 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



ceived authority from the chief priests; and when they 
were put to dkath, I gave my voice against them. And 
I persecuted this way into death, binding and delivering 
into prisons both men and women. And I punished 
them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to 
blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I 
persecuted them even unto strange cities. 'Whereupon 
with authority and commission from the chief priests, 
and from all the estate of the elders, from whom also 1 
received letters unto the brethren, I went unto Damascus, 
to bring them bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished. 
And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and 
was come nigh unto Damascus, about noon, at midday, 
suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round 
about me — I saw in the way a great light from heaven 
shining round about me, and them that journeyed with 
me — and I fell unto the ground. And when I was fallen 
to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me in the 
Hebrew tongue, and saying, 

Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for 
thee to kick againsc the pricks. 

And I answered and said, Who art Thou, Lord? 

And the Lord* said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazar- 
eth, whom thou persecutest. 

And they that were with me saw indeed the light, 
and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of Him 
that spoke to me. 

And I said, What shall I do, Lord? 

And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and stand upon 
thy feet, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be 
told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to 
do. For I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, 
to make thee a minister (servant, hujpeereteeri), and a 



[*"The Lord," xxvi, 15, is not in T. R, but is found in Cod., Sin., 
and all uncials. It ought to be in T. R.] 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



153 



witness both of those things which thou hast seen, and 
of those things in the which I will (yet) appear unto 
thee; delivering thee from the people, and from the 
Gentiles unto whom 1 now send thee (in order), to open 
their eyes, and to turn them (their eyes, so that they may 
turn), from darkness to light, and from the power of 
Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of 
sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified 
by faith that is in Me. 

About sixty years after His ascension, Jesus appeared 
twice to John, the apostle, during his exile in the isle 
of Patmos, whither he had been banished for the word of 
God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. On the second 
of these appearances, He showed Himself from Heaven 
(Rev. iv, v), and in the first of thesft He appeared to 
Him on the earth. John's description of this one is as 
follows (Eev. i, 10-19 ): 

1 was in The Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard 
behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am 
Alpha and Omega, the first and the last ; and, what 
thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven 
churches which are in Asia: unto Ephesus, and unto 
Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and 
unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. 

And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. 
And being turned, 1 saw seven golden candlesticks; and 
in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the 
Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, 
and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head 
and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; 
and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like 
un o fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His 
voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His 



151 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



right hand seven stars, and out of His mouth went a 
sharp two-edged sword; and His countenance was as the 
sun shineth in his strength. 

And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. 
And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, 
Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am He that 
liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forever- 
more, Amen ; and have the keys of hell and of death. 

Then He gave him the letters to the seven churches, 
given us in i, 18-20; ii and iii: 

Write the things which thou hast seen and the things 
which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; the 
mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in My 
right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The 
seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and 
the seven candlesticks which thou sawest, are the seven 
churches. 

LETTER TO THE ANGEL OF THE CHURCH IN EPHESTJS. 

Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write: 
These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in 
His right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven 
golden candlesticks; I knov thy works, and thy labor, 
and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them 
which are evil; and thou hast tried them which say they 
are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: 
and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's 
sake hast labored, and has not fainted. [Nevertheless I 
have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy 
first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art 
fallen, aud repent, and do first works; or else I will 
come unto you quickly, and will remove thy candlestick 
out of his place, except thou repent. But this thou 
hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, 
which also I hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



155 



what The Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that 
overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which 
is in the midst of the paradise of God. 

LETTER TO THE - ANGEL OF THE CHURCH IN SMYRNA. 

And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna, write: 
These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, 
and is alive; I know thy works, and tribulation, and 
poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy 
of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are 
the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things 
which thou shalt suffer; behold, the devil shall cast 
some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye 
shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto 
death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that 
hath an ear, let him hear what The Spirit saith unto the 
churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the 
second death. 

LETTER TO THE ANG-EL OF THE CHURCH IN PERGAMOS. 

And unto the angel of the church inPergamos write: 
These things saith He which hatli the sharp sword 
with two edges: I know thy works, and where thou 
dwellest, even where Satan's seat is; and thou holdest 
fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in 
those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who 
was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. But I 
have a few things against thee, because thou hast there 
them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught 
Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of 
Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit 
fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doc- 
trine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate. Repent; 
or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight 
against them with the sword of My mouth. He that 
hath an ear, let him hear what The Spirit saith to the 



156 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 



churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of 
the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and 
in the stone anew name written, which no man knoweth 
saving he that receiveth it. 

LETTER TO THE ANGEL OF THE CHURCH EST THYATTRA. 

And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write: 
These things saith the Son of God, who hath His eyes 
like unto a flame of fire, and His feet are like fine brass: 
I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith. and 
thy patience, and thy works; and the last to he more than 
the first. Notwithstanding I have a few things against 
thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which 
calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my 
servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacri- 
ficed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her 
fornication; and she repented not. Behold, 1 will cast 
her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with 
her into great tribulation, except they repent of their 
deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and 
all the churches shall know that I am He which search- 
eth the reins and hearts; and I will give unto every one 
of you according to your works. But unto you I say, 
and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this 
doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, 
as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden 
but that which ye have already: hold fast till I come. 
And he that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto 
the end, to him will I give power over the nations; and 
he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of 
a potter shall they oe broken to shivers: even as I re- 
ceived of my Father. And I will give him the morn- 
ing star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what The 
Spirit saith unto the churches. 

LETTER TO THE ANGEL OF THE CHURCH IN SARDIS. 

And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write: 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



157 



These things saith He that hath the seven Spirits of (xod, 
and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a 
name that thon livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and 
strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to 
die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. 
Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard : 
and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not 
watch, I will come on thee, as a thief, and thou shalt 
not know what hour 1 will come upon thee. Thou hast 
a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their 
garments; and they shall walk with me in white; for 
they are worthy. He that overcome th, the same shall 
be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his 
name out of the Book of Life, but I will confess his name 
before my Father, and before His angels. He that 
hath an ear, let him hear what The Spirit saith unto the 
churches. 

LETTER TO THE ANGEL OE THE CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA. 

And unto the angel of the church in Philadelphia 
write: These things saith He that is holy, He that is 
true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth,. 
and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man open- 
eth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee 
an open door, and no man can shut it; for thou hast a 
little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not de- 
nied my name. Behold, I will make them of the syna- 
gogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, 
but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and wor- 
ship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. 
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also 
will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall 
come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon 
the earth. Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which 
thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that over- 



158 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 



come th will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, 
and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon 
him the name of My God, and the name of the city of 
My God, which is JSTew Jerusalem, which cometh down 
ont of heaven from My God : and I will write upon him 
My new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what 
The Spirit saith unto the churches. 

LETTER TO THE ANGEL OF THE CHURCH IN LAODICEA. 

And unto the angel of the church in Laodicea write: 
These things saith the Amen, the faithful, and true 
Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: I know 
thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would 
that thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art 
lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee 
out of My mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and 
increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and 
knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and 
poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of Me 
gold tried in the fire, that thou mayst be rich; and 
white raiment, that thou mayst be clothed, and that the 
shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine 
eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see. As many as 
I love, 1 rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore, and 
repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any 
man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in 
to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me. To 
him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My 
throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with 
My Father in His throne. He that hath an ear, let 
himhear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. 

A critical study of the post-ascension appearances 
falls not within the scope of the present volume. But 
we give them that the reader may have all the facts con- 
nected with all the appearances before him. He can see 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



159 



the relations which the two series sustain to each other; 
and compare the special purposes of each series with 
those oX the other, and of each appearance with the rest. 
This study, while it enlarges the understanding, will 
strengthen faith, and quicken love. 

There is one experience of our ascended Lord, how- 
ever, that is so vitally connected with His ascension 
and session at God's right hand, that it demands a larger 
consideration. This was the fourth manifestation of 
Jesus' glorification: 

HIS ANOINTING IN HEAVEN. 

It is thus described by The Spirit speaking through 
the prophet: "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. 
The sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou 
lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore 
God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of glad- 
ness above thy fellows." Psalm xlv, 6, 7." 

The fulfillment of this prophesy and promise was ac- 
complished in the actual anointing of Jesus as King, 
upon His triumphant return to Heaven. This is told 
in Hebrews i, 8, 9: 

"But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is 
forever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness in the scep- 
tre of Thy Kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness 
and hated iniquity; therefore God, Thy God, hath an- 
ointed Thee wiih the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.'' 

The Psalm, called a "song of love," is undoubtedly 
Messianic. The human basis may have been the nup- 
tials of Solomon ; but its fulness of meaning can apply 
only to the Royal One typed by him. And this appli- 



160 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

cation of it by the writer of The Hebrews fully establish- 
es the fact. The subject of the Psalm is Messiah the King, 
and His dominion on, and over, the earth. 

His welcome home was a royal one; "Lift up your 
heads, O ye gates, and the King of glory shall come in." 
And the reason of this is given, viz; His own worthi- 
ness to occupy the throne. This is based upon the es- 
sential majesty of His Person, and the approved excel- 
lence of His work: "Thy throne, O God,is forever and ever, 
the sceptre ot Thy Kingdom is a sceptre of righteous- 
ness." This is the great qualification for effective hu- 
man rule and supremacy. His was to be the govern- 
ment of all beneath the sun. And as such, only as es- 
tablished and maintained in eternal right, could it firmly 
stand. To Adam was that dominion given. God's 
highest servant was entrused with the rights of God. 
But he abode not in honor, maintained not in right- 
eousness his sovereign place. His fall proved his per- 
sonal unworthiness, and consequent incapacity to be the 
governing head of a dependent creation. But J esus stood 
where Adam fell. He maintained and vindicated right- 
eousness in every possible trial. He thus showed Him- 
self possessed of personal fitness for human rule. For 
the joy set before Him He had endured the cross, des 
pising the shame. And He now enters into this joy, 
and receives, as The Man of God's pure sanction and de- 
light, the rewards of righteousness. 

He is told to gird on His sword with glory and ma- 
jesty; and to go forth prosperously, because of meek- 
ness, truth and righteousness. And His anointing, and 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 161 

investitu.de with the sceptre of human rule, is on the 
ground of His righteousness — of His perfect obedience, 
and fulfillment of the word of G-od (Phil, ii, 4-7). 

The Psalm says, "Thou lovest righteousness and hat- 
est iniquity," &c. The present tense expresses His af- 
fections before incarnation. But in the Hebrews the 
verb is in the past tense — "Thou hast loved. "&c. — de- 
noting something long enough past and established to be 
a settled fact. This describes the fact as it was after 
His return to heaven. The experience of an actual, 
thorough, unresting testing, in every possible way, dur 
ing the whole stay in a world of sin, most conclusively 
shows that "Thou lovest, and hast loved righteousness 
and hated iniquity." "Therefore" — as a result and re- 
ward of this absolute holiness and merit — "God, Thy 
God, hath anointed Thee." 

This cannot be His anointing at baptism. That was 
seen by John, this was unseen by mortal eye. That was at 
the beginning of His course, and qualified Him for it. 
This was at its close, and consequent upon it. That 
belongs to His cross and crown of thorns, insignia of 
His service, suffering and shame. This was connected 
with His triumph, with a sceptre, throne, crown of gold, 
and insignia of royalty. That was for the ministry of 
grace, and for the ends of the first Advent. This 
for the ministry of glory and for the ends of 
the second Advent (Ps. lxxx, 20, 29). And to 
these insignia He had a right, in His own name, 
by His Father's designation, and by His victory over 
all His foes (Acts ii, 36; Pom. xiv, 9). This was recog- 



162 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



nized in this anointing. He, like David, was anointed 
twice, before as Saviour, now as King. And this an- 
ointing was connected with His exaltation and session 
at God's right hand, for not until then did He assume 
the Kingdom as the Son of Man (Ps. cx, 1, 2), He, filled 
with The Spirit, who went with Him to heaven, re- 
ceived His Kingdom. The Father anointed Him with 
the oil of gladness, and enthroned Him by His side on 
the seat of dominion over all flesh — infallible assurance 
that He Himself would return, and that, meanwhile, 
The Spirit would be poured out upon all flesh. And His 
Kingship was owned in heaven and on earth. Angels 
gave Him welcome and worship. Saints on earth 
crowned Him Lord. Saints in heaven sang out, "Worthy 
is the Lamb that was slain;" and in the chorus of ador- 
ation and homage the whole creation joined. None, 
while He was on earth, dreamed of the exalted career 
of that lowly, unpretending Man, nor of the ultimate 
vast sweep of His beneficent agency. He stood in all 
outward aspects at the farthest possible remove from 
His distinguished types, whither of the priestly or kingly 
line. He never wore the brilliant breast-plate of Aaron 
into the holy of holies. His hand never held any sceptre 
except the mocking reed. But His priestly work was 
the only real and efficacious one earth ever saw. Now, 
from the depths of glory He wields a righteous sceptre 
over the world. Monarchies many and memorable have, 
since He was crowned, flourished and faded awav, but 
His remains. Monarchs have been feared and obeyed, 
but rarely, personally loved by their subjects. But His 



163 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

royal office has secured a depth of attachment, and a 
fulness of service, to which all the records of earth-born 
royalty together furnish not one parallel. 

This anointing was u above Thy fellows." Above an- 
gels, confirmed by Him in their estate, His messengers, 
and His fellow-partakers in the glories, holiness and 
blessedness of Heaven. Above His fellow-men, born 
of His Spirit, united to His Person, participants of His 
nature, and members of His family. These enter into 
fellowship with His sufferings and death. They con- 
stitute the Bride which He will espouse, and associate 
in His royalty dignity when He returns. They share 
the anointed fellowship of Jesus' reigning joy. He 
sanctifying, and they sanctified, are all of one; there- 
fore He is not ashamed to call them brethren; saying, 
u unto my brethren will I declare thy name." 

Him now, they delight to honor. By faith, through 
The Spirit and word, they have some sense of what He 
is, and what He has done, and is doing, for them. This 
value is very imperfect. But they take God's valuation,the 
value God has set upon Him. This they see in this anoint- 
ing, which was because of His intrinsic excellence. They 
see Jesus crowned with glory and honor. They anoint 
Him in their hearts. They give Him the best out of 
their ivory palaces. They break upon Him their boxes 
of perfume, and all His garments smell of aloes, myrrh 
and cassia. They crown Him their King. They sound 
His praises as One whose name is as precious ointment 
poured forth. So did the Magi. Their tribute was a 
kind of anointing, expressive of the glory that was in 



164: 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 



Him as a babe, and of their homage to Him as King, 
So did the woman that was a sinner. The anointing 
God had put upon Him, for the ministry of grace and 
love to sinners, had, as He walked on earth, spread itself 
abroad. Her faith had discovered, used, enjoyed it. 
Her soul, awakened to those affections, which by it are 
aroused, brought in its own time and way, its anoint- 
ings also. Lovely and affecting scene, with a character 
all its own, expressive of a sinner's value of Jesus as 
suited to her needs. So did Mary. The nameless wo- 
man anointed Him as Saviour, Mary anointed Him as 
King. The former, in tears and in the tenderness of the 
sinner's faith, the latter, without tears, with the oil of 
gladness, in the intelligence and joy of the matured be- 
liever's faith. The former, because just saved, the lat- 
ter, against the day of His burial. She knew He was 
to receive glory, not corruption. Her faith said, Res- 
urrection will preserve His body. And her anointing 
is expressive of the believer's sense of all the value that 
is in Jesus as the Heir of all the glories connected with, 
and consequent upon, His return from the grave. 

In this anointing Jesus received the completion of 
the promise of The Father, which He was to send. And 
the first act of His royalty, the fifth manifestation of 
His glorification, was to send The Spirit down (Acts 
ii, 33). The invisible enthronemeut in the heavens was 
followed by the visible coming of The Spirit to earth. 
The fitness of receptivity of the disciples was complete- 
They received the fulness, and along with it a share in 
His first anointing. As the holy oil ran down the 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 165 

beard of Aaron's garment, so this flows down from Him 
to them, His members, and ultimately to be the joint- 
heirs to His throne. 

This is Pentecost. This fits them to be workers to- 
gether with Him, until He returns. This is ours as 
well as theirs. Pentecost will be followed by Parousia. 
Then His ascension will be theirs and ours. The Pen- 
tecost gives the holiness and power for service, Parou- 
sia, the glory and reward. He is anointed above His 
fellows, for it is right and meet that in all things He 
lias the pre-eminence. But that will not hinder their 
participation in His glory, when He returns, and they 
are raised, with Him to reign. Heaven retains Him 
since the day that He vanished from the wistful gaze of 
those who witnessed His ascension. Now He is hidden, 
but owned by angels, and by the spirits of the just in 
heaven, and by the saints on earth. They await the 
Epiphany of His glorious Kingdom. He shall come 
forth majestically. Not alone. Besides myriads of 
saints, He shall be brought on His way by an angel 
host. He shall come in power and glory, as Xing of 
nations. He will be recognized as King of Kings, and 
Lord of Lords. The world which crowned Him with 
thorns, will render supremest homage to him, the once 
rejected Son of Man. In that triumph and joy ah His 
saints will share. And in that day of His espousal and 
gladness of heart, when the marriage will be consum- 
mated, and they will see the connection between anoint- 
ing for service, and anointing for reigning, they will look 
back to Pentecost when and where The Spirit proclaimed 



166 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

Jesus King. Then will they see how then and since. 
The Spirit has brought to Jesus all those who crown 
Him in their hearts, and own His sway.* 

The Argument Rightly Built on these Facts. 

The reader has now before him the whole history of 
Jesus resurrection. The narratives are independent of 
each other. The discrepancies between them are seem- 
ing. For despite them (though some of these may not, 
from lack of information be removed in time) the nar- 
ratives can be combined into one harmonious whole. And 
the resiiit is one complete and consistent picture. In 
its study we see that in the consciousness of the early 
Church the resurrection of J esus was an external reality? 
and the foundation of their faith. And the object of 
the whole picture, as of its parts, is to give to everyone 
the unhesitating conviction of the reality with its mo- 
mentous consequences. 

There are difficulties. Some are philosophical. To 
these, however, this answer, "God is able to do" is suf- 
ficent for all who believe in the existence of a L"ving, 
Personal God. "Why," said Paul to King Agrippa y 
"should it be thought a thing incredible with you that 
God should raise the dead?" (Acts xxvi, 8). Others 
are critical and historical. These may be largely re- 
moved by a sound exegesis, and a clear statement of the 
facts. And this patient study must surely bring con- 

[*1 Cor. xiii. 3. Eph. v, 30. Heb. ii, iii. Matt. xxv. 21, 23. Rev. iii, 
21. xix.J 



THE HOLY KES UK EJECTION. 167 

vict'on as to the external fact to every thoughtful mind 
and honest heart. 

The testimonies are (a) the successive historic state- 
ments; (b) the senses, intelligence and honesty of the 
witnesses and writers; (c) the words of Jesus; and (d) 
the Hebrew Scriptures. 

In the historic statements the miracle is intermingled 
with the ordinary, and is told in the same simple and 
homely way. The writers recognize that Jesus' resur- 
rection is a stupendous fact, not unnatural, but yet 
wholly beyond even the extraordinary in His life. Tney 
mention it as a natural and integral part of His life. 
They give the proofs and arguments which He advanced 
in evidence of the fact. They tell its features and the 
effects which it wrought upon the thinking and acting 
of His followers. They announce facts. They adduce 
Scriptures. But they never give a proof or argument 
of their own. Their very simplicity and earnestness 
attest their truthfulness. 

Paul's testimony is most direct and decided. In his 
great letters to the Romans (A. D. 58 or 59), and to the 
Corinthians (A.D. 59) our oldest, and only unassailed lit- 
erature on the subject, he mentions Jesus' resurrection 
as a well recognized historic fact. "Christ was raised 
from the dead by the glory of God, the Father," and 
"was declared to be the Son of God with power by His 
resurrection from the dead." He mentions a number 
of His appearances. He declares that the most of those 
five hundred to whom He had showed Himself aliye at 
one time were still living when he wrote this letter. To 



168 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



their testimony he adds his own: "I have seen the Lord," 
He then goes on, "If Christ be not risen, your faith is 
vain — i. e., has no foundation — and we are found false 
witnesses of God, because we have testified of Him 
that He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up." 
And upon this resurrection he founds the resurrection 
of all believers. And Paul was altogether too honest 
and self-respecting a man to stoop to such a degrada- 
tion as is involved in giving out fictions as facts, or to 
stake his own veracity upon statements which he did 
not know to be absolutely true. 

Two of the writers, Matthew and John, were eye- 
witnesses of the facts which they give. And John, in 
his Letters and Revelation,* mentions as an unques- 
tioned historic fact that Jesus lived in Heaven as "the 
First-begotten from the dead," and that He had de- 
clared to him "I am He that liveth, and was dead, and 
am alive forevermore." And the vividness, fulness, 
and minute and delicate details of his descriptions — 
such as those of the running of Peter and himself, the 
inside of the tomb, Peter's throwing his coat over his 
naked body, and the appearances of Jesus given in the 
Revelation, &c. — instantly impress upon the mind the 
conviction that he had witnessed, and accurately nar- 
rates what he describes. 

These testimonies have been subjected to the severest 

[*The Letters were written about A. D. 90; the Revelation, 
A. 96; the Gospel about A. D. 78. Holtzniann, whose liberal- 
ism no one disputes, puts the date of Matthew's and Mark's Gos- 
pels prior to A. D. 70, and Luke's before A. D. 80. Die Synopt. 

Evan.~\ 



THE HOLT KESITRRECTIOlSr. 



169 



and most searching unfriendly scrutiny. But every 
such investigation has strengthened the conviction of 
their historic accuracy. The effort has been repeatedly 
made to break their force by disentangling the miracu- 
lous from the natural. But the two are so interwoven 
in the warp and woof of the story that it is soon seen 
that it must stand or fall as a whole. There is no solid 
ground for doubting the accuracy of the narratives in 
the one more than in the other. If in the one. then 
everywhere are they~unworthy of credit. If their tes- 
timony as to the resurrection, then all their testimony 
concerning Jesus must be rejected. If He did not arise, 
He did not exist at all. 

Witnesses and writers both were men of common 
sense. Having the opportunity, they had the capacity 
to judge of sensible tacts. They could distinguish be- 
tween reports and testimony, and justly estimate the 
value of the latter. They were independent thinkers. 
They differed in many respects from each other. Doc- 
trinal differences, individual preferences, divergent ten- 
dencies of thought divided them into parties and sects. 
But as to the fact of Jesus' resurrection, there was ab- 
solute oneness of conviction. They were few, unknown, 
unlearned (save a few), uninfluential, and unsupported 
by any learned or influential men. They proclaimed 
salvation open to all "in Jesus," and impossible apart 
from Him. They announced as facts — the basis of that 
salvation — one thing abhorrent (crucifixion) to the Jew- 
ish theocratic mind, and one thing incredible (resurrec- 
tion) to the practical Roman, and philosophic Grecian 



170 THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 

minds. And yet Jews, most scrupulous in matters 
of faith, Romans, most practical in their ideas of life, 
and Greeks, most cultured and keen-witted, became 
converts. Around these facts a system at once doctri- 
nal and ethical, and new in the world's history, crystal 
ized. With them its every institution, belief and its 
ethical life were indissolvably intertwined. From them 
sprang every hope. These were the foundation without 
which it would crumble to pieces; the vital air, with- 
out which it would wither and die. If not objective 
facts, they were falsehoods; and as such, weights which 
must sink the system into ruin, and its authors into 
infamy. The system^ was aggressive, revolutionary and 
destructive, out constructive as well. Its preachers 
were described as men who turned the world upside 
down. The facts were first published not in distant 
and inaccessible countries, but on the spot where, and 
a few days after, they had occurred. In the presence 
of a vast and promiscuous concourse its preachers 
charged home upon the murderers of Jesus their guilt, 
and announced the triumphant vindication of the Cruci- 
fied: "God raised Him from the dead." It was open- 
ly, fearlessly, powerfully proclaimed not only in Jeru- 
salem, but also in Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Rome, 
and in all the chief centers of intellectual, social, politi- 
cal and commercial activity. It was proclaimed in the 
most enlightened era of antiquity — the age of Augus- 
tus and Tiberius; the age of Cicero, Yirgil and Horace; 
the age when, under the attacks of philosophy and blows 
of reason, superstitions crumbled into dust, where 



THE HOLY EESTJEKECTION. 171 

natualism and nature- worship were in the ascendant as 
they are now, where one party explained the movements 
of matter by inherent forces, and another party af- 
firmed that perfection in moral goodness was reached 
by the unaided cultivation of one's moral powers. It 
appealed to the thinking, reasoning powers, and to the 
common sense of mankind. It demanded the closest 
investigation. It profoundly stirred, it sent vital cur- 
rents through society, purifying and ennobling it. It 
aroused, and arrayed against itself the fiercest hostility. 
By the Jews it was assailed in the bitterest hate. Its 
adherents were stoned by mobs, and dragged before 
Councils. An explanation of their conduct was de- 
manded, and fearlessly given — given with all unwaver- 
ing conviction of truth. All sorts of charges were al- 
leged. But never once was the cry raised, "these men 
are imposters." Never once were their facts challenged 
by any one.* The saying "was commonly reported," 
but not commonly believed. If it was ever urged, or 
even seriously entertained by any one, the fact has left 
not the slightest trace on the literature of the first cen- 
tury. Its object was to paralyze the preaching of Je- 
sus' followers. But it seems not to have made any 
impression. Thousands of Jews, including "a great 
company of the priests," became obedient to the faith. 
The church was at once formed in J erusalem. Within 

[*See Acts, passion. We do not forget the story started by 
trie Sanhedrim just after Jesus' resurrection, and still in circula- 
tion when Matthew's Gospel was written, thirty years after the 
event (Matt, xxviii, 10-15), and also handed down by later Jews. 
(Toledoth Jeschu. Dialogue with Trypho.) 



172 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



twenty-live years alter that it was established and flourish- 
ing in the chief cities of the Roman Empire, and in the 
regions beyond. In Eome, as we learn from Tacitus' 
graphic description, and as early as A. D. 80, the church 
suffered the first great persecution from the Gentile 
Powers. The Sanhedrim knew that the fact was pub- 
licly and constantly proclaimed in the city and that 
multitudes were daily becoming convinced thereby that 
Jesus was the Christ. They were grieved that Jesus 
and the resurrection were preached. They heard the 
arrested men's statement, "This Jesus whom ye crucified 
God has raised from the dead." They were urged by 
the strongest motives to deny the statement, and had 
the amplest opportunities to investigate its accuracy. 
They did not even make the attempt. And what sufficient 
reason can be assigned for this conduct save this: the 
allegations were facts. They let the disciples go. And 
when they were let go they went forth rejoicing that 
they were counted worthy to suffer for His sake. But 
their mouths were not stopped. Despite all hardships, 
trials, persecutions and threats they boldly affirmed the 
facts, of which they were eye and ear witnesses. And 
their preaching produced conviction. Converts multi 
plied in every direction. Lives and hearts were changed! 
Men were cheered by the doctrines which they preached, 
and animated by the hopes which those doctrines in- 
spired. 

The construction of their books shows consummate 
wisdom. The detail? — such as the seal guard, earth- 
quake, terror-stricken soldiers, affrighted women, weep- 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 173 

ing Mary, troubled Peter and John, doubting Thomas, 
sad and suddenly joyful Cleophas, the calm Christ, these 
and many more — bear the stamp of historic accuracy 
upon their face. Could the most inventive genius con- 
struct such narratives? Could it ba found to move so 
many men to write upon a subject within a few years 
of each other, each one using only those things which ans- 
wered the object he had in \iew, some of which seem 
manifest divergencies from the statements of the others, 
but all giving surprising, and truth seeming details and 
all showing such complete unity of design in convey- 
ing to the mind the impression of the actual resurrec- 
tion of a real Person? and He One whose character they 
had so fully delineated? Could the writers be so moved 
by this genius as to write all this, knowing all the time 
that they were writing fiction? This would be a varia- 
tion from the ordinary experience of the working of the 
mind more wonderful than the fact of the resurrection 
itself. 

Their attempt to palm upon the world a fiction for a 
fact on the supposition they did this makes them the 
most unprincipled of men. Could such men have de- 
lineated a character so thoroughly unique, so trirhful, 
and of such surpassing loveliness as that they ascribe 
to Jesus ? The parts are indissolubly connected together. 
He is represented as both a natural and a supernatural 
Person. This delineation could not possibly be the re- 
sult of natural processes, nor could such a Person be the 
victim of natural destiny. His incarnation necessitates 
resurrection. 



174 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

The writers had nothing in all previous history,in any 
book, in any existing mythologies or philosophies, nor in 
any of the conceptions of the anticipated Messiah, ont of 
which to fabricate these things, or to build np snch a 
character. These were totally at variance with the actual 
life of the delineated Christ. These were founded upon 
the then current interpretations of the prophecies, that 
upon the lived facts. In their light the prophecies were 
found to be unlike the previous and popular impression, 
but wonderfully correspondent with these facts, and in 
their light wonderfully clear. And this fact shows that 
they could not possibly have constructed the life out of 
either the prophecies or the popular conception. 

But more. They — on this hypothesis — -constructed a 
system in which, and on whose facts, they placed their 
present peace and eternal happiness. "If," said they, 
"in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most 
miserable. For, if Christ be not risen, the dead rise 
not," i. e., there is no future state. Thus they cut 
themselves off from all future bliss. They pronounce 
themselves the most miserable of men in this life. They 
spend time, money, reputation, life, and they endure pov- 
erty, persecution, suffering, shame and toil. For what? 
For the propagation of a delusion which had made them 
unhappy, could only make every one unhappy, and 
which could not be of the slightest imaginable benefit to 
any one. This would be an absurdity unparalleled. 
And yet they proclaimed this system with the avowed 
purpose of influencing mankind to believe it true, and to 
receive it for their temporal and eternal good. 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION". 



175 



This system is one of supreinest holiness and of 
boundless benevolence. It seeks man's good in his sal- 
vation from sin and pollution. It most pronouncedly 
condemns all falsehood and wrong; forbids the doing of 
evil that good may come; opposes man's passions and 
sinful life; and is the object, until he is converted, of 
his determined hostility. It addresses his nobler powers, 
satisfies all his true yearnings and aspirations, and gives 
both the will and power to love, and be helpful to his 
fellow men. It lias made its way by no gorgeous cere- 
monial, no fascinating rite, no physical power, no sup- 
port of influential men. It is too severely chaste and 
simple for the former, too benevolent for the latter, and 
too lowly for the last. For its progress in the world it 
acknowledges its indebtedness to naught else save its 
Author, its own intrinsic excellence, and its own proofs of 
its own heavenly origin. And yet it spread with a ra- 
pidity that amazed and alarmed the nations. Opposing 
systems crumbled to pieces before its advancing tread. 
It conquered the world. To-day it is wide-spread, and 
growing. It has rooted itself in the heart of humanity. 
It is found alike in stately houses and humble cottages. 
It flourishes equally amid the snows of the Korth and 
in the perpetual verdure of the South, in the wilds of 
Africa and in the centers of civilization. It has created 
the civilization of Europe and America, and evermore 
brings incalculable blessings to mankind. 

This system was founded upon the death and resur- 
rection of Jesus. They were proclaimed because be- 
lieved. The living church is a living proof of belief in 



176 THE HOLY RESURRECTION, 

these facts. Baur admits this. ''-The faith," says he,"of the 
disciples in these things as facts, is most certain and indis- 
putable. This faith is the only foundation solid enough 
to snstain the superstructure of Christianity in its whole 
historic development."* iSfraus admits the same thing.-)- 
But the faith could not have grown up apart from the 
fact. The whole history of the church in its rise pro- 
gress, and ennobling influences upon the individual, 
society, nations, is a fact which no reasoning can dis- 
turb. Through it has been wrought the most stupen- 
dous changes in human thinking- and none more mar- 
vellous than that about the cross. It was the most 
odious of punishments. The odium attached to the 
gallows, guillotine and block is almost praise compared 
with the abyssmal infamy attached to the cross. It was 
never wiped away. Nothing except total oblivion could 
save the name and family from the badge, "accursed of 
man," and "accursed of God." It seemed utterly im- 
possible for anything ever to lift the instrument and its 
association cut of the degradation and odium belongincr 
to them in the judgment of mankind. The Jews knew 
that Jesus had stamped His influence too deeply upon 
the national mind for Him to hope for oblivion. His 
memory could not perish. And therefore, that He 
might be consigned to eternal infamy, they crucified 
Him. But out of this degradation and infamy the cross 
came forth transfigured, the sign of honor and the sym- 
bol of the salvation of God. It was not a change 



[*Drei ersten Ja7irhundert, 2d ed., pages 39, 40.] 
[jLeben Jesiu, x^age 289.] 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 



177 



wrought by the mellowing influence of distance or time. 
In the city where, and within a few days after the time 
when on it Jesus hung, it was glorified. And not long 
afterwards the world was amazed to hear that so grand 
a man, and so firm a persecutor as Saul of Tarsus had 
become thoroughly turned to it, and was everywhere 
saying, "I glory only in the cross of Christ;" and that 
sound was re- echoed by multitudes, some among whom 
were the noblest, purest, Mndliest of mankind. 

What was it that caused this stupendous change in 
human thinking? that lifted up the cross to the exalted 
position it occupies? ~Not the sufferings of Jesus merely. 
These might win pity and respect, but could not command 
reverence and love. A dead Christ could not have 
shaken down the solid foundations of idolatry and its 
nstitutions as they existed at Corinth and Eome, and on 
their ruins have erected a religion and its civilization whol- 
ly opposite. Only the living Christ could do this. It was 
the nature and results of those sufferings, the character 
of the Sufferer, and the seal which His resurrection 
had stamped upon both : His sufferings endured for the 
benefit of man ; His character such as became the Messiah, 
calm, self-possessed, suffering and dying in the con- 
sciousness of the dignity of His Person, and of object of 
His mission, and in the fullest assurance of soul; and 
His resurrection, putting upon all the stamp of God's 
approval: these it was that at once changed the cross into 
all that it has been ever since: In the light of resurrec- 
tion every fact of His death became clear as a sunbeam. 
And the cross, at once the symbol of the work accom- 



178 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

plished upon it, and of the vast and beneficent results 
flowing from that work to man, stands forth in resurrec- 
tion light, transformed, illumined, glorious to the end 
of time. 

Could any system based on a falsehood or myth have 
accomplished all this? Could unprincipled men have 
originated a system whose foundation being really a lie has 
yet all the appearance, power, authority, usefulness of 
truth? Could they impose it upon thinking men? And 
yet this is what they did, and with such marvellous 
success that their lie obtained a permanent triumph over 
truth. Their supposed facts took deep root, and spread. 
Men were regenerated. Nations were lifted up. The 
world was revolutionized. The face of history was 
changed. Despite all attacks upon it, it has maintained its 
ascendency for two thousand years, and seems possessed 
of vitality enough to flourish for thousands of years to 
come. Was that system concocted by men? Rests it upon 
a fraud? To ask men to believe this is to ask something 
more than the average thinker who studies the facts, can 
accept. Christianity is altogether too massive a struc- 
ture to rest upon an un-reality. It is infinitely easier to 
believe that it is the offspring of a miracle, than to be- 
lieve that it is the offspring of a lie. 

The lives of the founders corresponded with the ethics 
of the system which they proclaimed. "Put away," 
said they, "all lying, guile and hypocracy, and evermore 
speak the truth. Be faithful to God, and do your whole 
duty to man. Be sober, honest, kind to -all, and remem- 
ber the poor." So they preached. So they acted. Their 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 179 

lives were above reproach. The y labored with their own 
hands. Being reviled, they blessed. Being persecuted, 
they suffered it. "You, and God also, are witnesses, how 
holily, justly and unblamably we behaved ; not walking in 
craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but 
manifesting ourselves to every man's conscience in the 
sight of God." Thus they lived, and thus they labored, 
because they trusted in Jesus, the Saviour of all, who 
both died and rose again. 

These are the men upon whose testimony rests our 
belief in the fact of resurrection. The rejection of this 
testimony involves us in endless contradictions, and 
compels us to admit things repugnant to our feelings, 
and contrary to the course of human everts. "We must 
believe that a company of men, honorable in all other 
respects, banded together to aim ostensibly at good 
through the fabrication of a lie, that they held together, 
and continually enlarged, without one being found to 
ever give the slightest intimation of the fraud, and that 
they placed all their own hopes upon the resurrection of 
Jesus, while they knew all the time that He was fast 
locked up in the tomb. This is a story too incredible 
for the acceptance of any sane and honest mind. 

Let us turn to the facts which they give. 

1. Jesus frequently fore- announced His own death, 
and subsequent resurrection on the third day following.* 
These facts were to be fraught with the richest blessings 
to mankind. As a memorial of them and of Himself, 



[*Matt.-xxi, 21; xvii, 23; xx, 15; Mark ix, 31; x, 34; Luke 
ix, 22; xyiii, 33; xxiv, 7.] 



180 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



He instituted a simple Supper whose continuance would 
be till He came again. On the night of its institution 
He was betrayed and arrested. On the following day 
He was condemned to death by the Jewish supreme tri- 
bunal, and executed by the order of the Roman gov- 
ernor. At 3 P. M. He died. Pilate, when thoroughly 
satisfied of this fact gave His body to a Jewish coun- 
cillor, who buried it in his own tomb. Upon the great 
stone closely fitting into the sepulchre's mouth, Pilate's 
official seal was stamped, and a guard of Roman soldiers 
was placed by his command at the tomb. Their duty 
was to prevent any one taking away the Body. These 
facts are beyond dispute. No link in the chain of the tes- 
timony is wanting. Jesus was actually dead and buried. 

2. Nothing, during the next forty hours, disturbed 
the quiet of the tomb. Then the tomb was burst open, 
and the Body was gone. "Was it taken away? So said 
the soldiers. But this was at the instance of the priests 
to whom they told the facts which they knew, and who 
had every motive to conceal those facts. Did friends 
remove it? Their mental and moral condition at the 
time absolutely forbids the supposition. They had all 
forsaken the living Jesus. What possible motive was 
powerful enough to impel them to disturb the Body of the 
dead Jesus, whose end had seemingly so cruelly mocked 
the glory of His life, disappointed all their hopes, and 
had exposed them to all the obloquy of following a false 
Messiah ? Did enemies remove it ? They had no motive 
to do this. And if they had done it, their word to this 
effect would have confronted the idea of resurrection; 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



181 



and, such was the popular clamor against Jesus, would 
have been credited. And farther, had they done it, and 
then told where the body was, that would most effect- 
ually have killed the cause of Jesus. Did unknown 
persons remove it? The seal, guard, absence of all mo- 
tives say, no. And as for the story started by the priests, 
the following is a sufficient answer. Peter and John once, 
and the body of the apostles twice, were brought before 
the Sanhedrim, and boldly in their presence declared 
that Jesus had arisen. (Acts iv, 1-22; v, 17-32.) Most 
favorable opportunities these to expose the fraud. Why 
was it not done? Why, rather was the fact admitted by 
implication?* Is it not strange that the guard's remis- 
sions was never reported to headquarters? ~No valid 
reason has ever been given why Matthew's statement a- 
bout the soldiers should not be implicitly believed- They 
told the facts as far as they knew them. Their word 
was believed. And to account for the empty tomb 
— a fact which would soon be known throughout the 
city — they were bribed to tell the lie. 

3. To certain women, who went early to the sepul- 
chre, an angel, declared that Jesus had arisen, and would 
meet His disciples in Galilee. They returned to the 
city in haste, and told the disciples. The chief priests 
believed the soldiers; the disciples believed not the wo- 
men's words. The latter announced resurrection. And 
this was a fact that the disciples were not in a condition of 
mind to accept. Even when Peter and John saw in the 



[*See Gamaliel's remark. Acts v, 34-39.] 



182 THE HOLY liESUBKECTION. 

order of the grave clothes in the empty tomb the rul- 
ing of the highest presence of mind, and of the greatest 
composure of spirit, they could not see in the idea of 
resurrection. The tacts they were cognizant of may 
have been a stepping stone to faith in it, and to the con- 
sequent complete faith in Jesus as the Son of God. But 
that was all. Up to, say, 5 P. M. of that day not a man 
believed that Jesus had arisen. The first two who did 
were Cleophas and his friend. To them Jesus appeared 
and made Himself known in the breaking of bread. This 
was His third appearance on that day. Thence on He 
appeared to His disciples in different places, and under 
different circumstances, sometimes to few, sometimes to 
many, once by appointment, and that to above five hun- 
dred at once. He made Himself known to the senses 
of persons amply qualified to judge as to His identity. 
He gave them ample opportunity for the closest inspec- 
tion. By the senses of touch, sight and hearing they 
tested Him, and were thoroughly satisfied of the reality, 
both of the Body, and of its resurrection. 

These appearances were not those of a ghost. The 
first one to the company of the disciples was after they 
had been told of those to Mary, to the women, to Cleo- 
phas and his friend, and to Peter. It was a sudden, un- 
expected presence in a room where the doors were shut. 
It terrified them. They supposed it was a spirit. He 
calmed their terror, and removed their doubts. "Handle 
Me," said He; "a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye 
see Me have." 

Nor were they visions in either the spiritual or pop- 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 183 

ular acceptation of that term. This, the hypothesis of 
Holsten, adopted also by Lang, (Heinrich) by Straus 
(JVeues Leben), and by the author of Supernatural 
Religion, is seemingly rational and scientific. But it 
ruins the character of the witnesses, and it does not sat- 
isfactorily explain the facts. It first strives to make 
the ante and post ascension appearances the same in 
kind. Then it labors to show that the post ones, espec- 
ially those to Paul, were but vivid mental impressions. 
The mind seemed to see Jesus. Then mistaking the 
subjective for the objective, it invested what was not 
real with reality. They were not a bodily apparition, 
but only a vision to the mind. 

Two passages are given as the basis and support of 
this theory: "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vis- 
ion-" "it pleased God to reveal His Son in me" (Acts 
xxvi, 19; Gal. i, i6; Cor. xii, 5-6). But when we com- 
pare these with those in which the appearances are 
mentioned (Acts ix, 3-6; xxii, 3-16; xxvi, 8-18; 1 Cor. 
ix, 1; xv, 8) we at once perceive that these were ob- 
jective appearances, and that the manifestations to the 
soul (an experience common to believers, Jn. xiv, 24) 
accompanied it, and was different in character from it. 
This must have been so, if Paul honestly told, and Luke 
accurately narrated the facts. The visional theory can- 
not be made to harmonize with either of the statements, 
or with the mental or moral characteristics of Paul. 
He undoubtedly regarded the appearance as an objec- 
tive one. He puts it in the lists of what all ragarded 
as such and which he uses as a proof of our bodily resur- 



184 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

rection. He describes it by the word optasia, a sight, a 
spectacle, (heavenly vision E. Y.) rather than orama, or 
orasis, the word always used in the N. T. to designate 
the internal vision. And that he intended by the word to 
designate an objective reality is evident from his word 
to Agrippa, concerning God's ability to raise the dead. 
And inrther, when he was doubtful as to the char- 
acter of a manifestation, he was very careful to make the 
doubt known. 1 Cor. xii. His judgment was too cool, 
his intellect too clear, his reasoning faculties too acute, 
his ethical faculties too practical, wise and straight-for- 
ward, and his whole humanity too robust and manly, to 
mistake a subjective for an objective reality, or to declare 
that he had seen, when he had not seen the Lord. He 
could be neither the victim nor author of such a delusion. 

Farther, save the adjunct of locality, there is no ap- 
parent difference as to reality and objectiveness between 
the ante and the post ascension appearances. The im_ 
press ion upon the mind of the beholders was that they 
were objective manifestations. If they were not, but 
only the spirit of Jesus glorified, then He deceived the 
people. And this is the annihilation of His character. 

On the visional theory the ante ascension appearances 
might account for the post ascension ones, but the lat- 
ter certainly could not originate, therefore nor explain 
the former. This throws us back to the ante-acension 
ones. And here the hypothesis is met by most formid- 
able difficulties, (a) The difference between the objec- 
tive visions of which we have a record in the Bible and 
a subjective one, and between the recorded ones -and 



THE HOLY .RESURRECTION. 185 

these appearances is very marked. Let any one take a 
concordance and hunt up, and read the passages which 
speak of visions, and then compare them with these nar- 
ratives and he will at once see how marked the contrast 
between the three things, (b) Would not one who had 
experience of these phenomena,, question consciousness 
in his calmer moments? Thomas' mind was a doubting 
one, Peter's was practical, Paul's sober, cultivated prac- 
tical and profound. "Would such minds mistake a sub- 
jective vision or hallucination for a reality, be carried 
away by it, and never once detect or have a question 
concerning the reality? (c) A vision could only have 
suggested this: " Jesus is in heavenly glory." The dis- 
ciples could not hence, have said truthfully, "we have 
seen the risen Lord down here." Nor could they have 
suddenly sobered down from the visionary state, and, 
looking; the cold facts in the face have then stood 
up before the Sanhedrim which condemned Him to death, 
and calmly and boldly said, "Jesus is risen." Fifty days 
are not time enough for belief in resurrection to grow 
up in so many minds out of a hallucination. Straus 
felt and confessed this difficulty. It left him, he saw, 
no ground to stand upon. Hence all his frantic efforts 
to do away with the appearances which occurred on the 
first day. (d) A subjective vision cannot be made to 
accord with the facts as given, in their number, variety 
and details, nor with the solid hard facts of a dead and 
buried Jesus, the non-expectation of resurrection, the 
desolation, the dismay, the complete breakdown and ut- 
terly cheerless and hopeless condition of the disciples. 



ISO THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

How could those who expected no resurrection mistake 
a mental hallucination for a bodily appearance? They 
might and at first did suppose that they had seen a ghost- 
13 ut how co aid thev suddenly transform a ghost into a 
bodily reality? It would be psychologically impossible 
for such men to 'weave out of such facts a series of vis- 
ions such as — on this theory — the narratives give, and 
then associate themselves together in order to persistently 
declare them to be objective realities, (e) The appear- 
ances themselves show that they were not subjective. 
They were not a luminous something floating in the air, 
and vanishing in the sky. They were a localised tanga- 
biiitv, which gave full, definite, audible instructions and 
promises for the conducting of the church, and which 
pointed oat from the Scriptures that His resurrection 
must of necessity follow His sufferings and death. And 
if) the visional theory will not at all accord with the 
fact that the appearances did not become an abiding ele- 
ment in the life of the church. They have determinate 
and narrowly drawn boundaries. They suddenly began. 
And they suddenly ceased. TVith the exception of the 
post-ascension ones they are comprised within the limits 
of fortv days. On the well marked day of Jesus' return 
to His Father, they ceased, and the disciples calmed 
down. Even before that, they exhibited no sign of vis- 
ionary or morbid excitement. Tiiey went a fishing. 
They addressed themselves to their life calling and com- 
mon duties. Could they have done this if under so 
strano-e a hallucination as this theory declares them to 
have been? A sudden transition from a state of vision- 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. l v i 

ary and morbid excitement to a state so collected and 
cool is psychologically impossible. The calmness, the 
self-posesssion, the thoroughly practical energy of will, all 
indicate a perfectly sound mental and moral condition. 
The strictly determined manifestations and their cessa- 
tion, and the change in the disciples can be accounted 
for intelligently upon no possible hypothesis save this, 
that both were controlled by the external fact. With- 
out the fact the faith could not have been born. The 
clearness, considerateness, repose of spirit and ear- 
nestness of endeavor which ever after characterized the 
disciples absolutely forbid the supposition that they 
were a company of visionaries in which each one tried 
to infect every other one with his own fanaticism. Unless 
the evidences of the senses be wholly swept a way as wholly 
unreliable, the fact must stand. And it overturns the 
visional theory. Xor is this theory either rational or 
scientific. It can give no satisfactory explanation of the 
origin of the belief in actual resurrection, nor of the se- 
ries of appearances. It makes all the witnesses dishonest 
and irrational. All this is a demand too enormous to be 
accepted. Faith in the fact must live unless you would 
destroy the foundations of all historical knowledge, and 
empty the past of all reality. 

The change in the thinking of the disciples, was sud- 
den and complete. The following facts are unquestioned: 
The disciples were not prepared for resurrection, and 
did not believe the first tidings of it. Xotwithstanding; 
the stupendous news of the fact, and the profound im- 
pression of terror which the first appearance to the com- 



188 THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 

pany made upon it, the conviction of the reality of Je- 
sus' resurrection did take deep and permanent root in 
the mind. A living faith in it was an actuating and 
impelling power of the preaching, the substance of which 
was it, and its kindred fact " Jesus died." This preach- 
ing was the foundation of the church's faith and life, the 
starting point of its worship, and also of its peculiar 
forms, and the source of strength and joy for service 
and suffering. And how could this faith have become 
the power it then was, and has been ever since, except that 
it reposed upon an objective and historical fact? You say, 
no one saw the act of reanimation and resurrection. True. 
The narratives do not affirm that any one did. It was 
the Body after it had come forth alive from the tomb 
that people saw. You say, the statement, "the Body broke 
through the rocky sepulchre and came forth alive", is too 
stupendous a demand upon our faith. I reply, the break- 
ing through the despair and disbelief of the disciples 
was a still more stupendous fact, and a thing still more 
difficult to accomplish. And yet this was done. You 
say, why did He appear to His friends only, and not be- 
fore the Sanhedrim which had condemned Him? I ans- 
wer, had His rising been merely the resuscitation of His 
previous life, as in the case of Lazarus, lie could have 
been discerned by any cognizant of that life. But it 
was a resurrection in the true and proper meaning of 
that term, a manifestation of glorified humanity, of a 
Body completely filled and pervaded by the Spirit. 
Hence it could be discerned only by such as were spirit- 
ual. To such, who had known Him before must He ap- 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 18 0 

pear in order that His identity might be clearly and 
fully recognized, and thus the fact of resurrection be 
iully made known. But unbelievers being unspiritual 
could not have seen Him even had He appeared in their 
midst. Besides, had it been possible for Him to have been 
seen by such the sight could only have convinced them of 
the mere fact. But since the sight developed, as in the case 
of Thomas, an already existing faith which it could 
not create, the mere conviction of the fact of resurrection 
could not have brought faith in Him as the Son, and 
as the Christ, oi God. Hence an appearance to unbelievers 
would have been useless. "They have," and this is Je- 
sus' answer to the question, "'Moses and the prophets; 
let them hear them. If they will not hear them, nei- 
ther will they be persuaded though one arose from the 
dead." (Luke. xvi. 29, 31). 

Study the condition of mind of Jesus' company. His 
arrest was a terrible blow to mind and heart. TTorn out 
with the sickness of hope deferred, darkened by the 
shadow on the Lord, weighed down by the apprehen- 
sions of some appalling, impending stroke, distracted by 
the suggestions of distrust and doubt, they saw Him 
betrayed by one of their own number and arrested by 
the officers of law. Then terror crushed out all faith 
and courage. Peter, who had boldly confessed, John, 
who tenderly loved Him, Thomas, who was ready to die 
with Him, ^Nathaniel, the guileless, and all the rest, — 
men who had seen His mighty works, had heard His 
mighty words, had drunk in life and joy from His lips 
— all forsook Him and fled ! The rude, heavy stroke of 



190 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



death had shaken to pieces all repose, resolve, constancy, 
and balance of mind. Jesns siezed, soon became Jesns 
judged, abused, beaten, condemned, crucified, the seem- 
ingly helpless victim reviled and execrated. There was 
no tendency, in all this, nor in anything in the occurren- 
ces of that night and day of horrors, save J esus' own de- 
portment and words, to steady their nerves, restore their 
presence of mind, lift them out of their profound de- 
jection, much less to give wings to joyful faith. "With His 
death and burial came utter despair. Bitter disappoint- 
ment must have been mingled with their profound sor- 
row. THEKE WAS A GAP IN THE CONNEC- 
TION OF THEIR FAITH IN JESUS, AS A LIV- 
ING PRESENCE AND POWER, AND AS THE 
SON OF GOD WHICH RESURRECTION ALONE 
COULD FILL. It is contrary to all the laws of 
thinking to suppose that in such a condition of mind 
the idea of resurrection would occur to them. And 
every fact shows that it did not. The utmost that the 
empty tomb did was the convincing of Peter and John, 
(and also Mary Magdalene) that the Body was gone. 
And the words of CJeophas and his companion "we 
trusted that it had been He which would have redeemed 
Israel," expressed the conviction of the whole company. 
Their hopes of redemption by Him were a thing of the 
p st, a matter gone by. The fabric was shattered to 
dust. 

From the depth of despair, they passed at a bound 
to the height of joy, and to that confidence and boldness 
so conspicuous in their lives and preaching. This was 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 191 

caused, they said, by Jesus' re-appearances. Each appear- 
ance and its teaching gave an increase in knowledge and 
faith, and each advance in faith gave fresh conviction. 
Now it is psychologically impossible for perpetrators of 
a fraud to have wrought such a chancre in themselves. 
They must first reanimate all their own dead hopes. 
Then they must come together and deliberately form a 
falsehood stupendous in character. Then to carry it 
out successfully would require coolness of mind, pre- 
cision of purpose, power of invention to construct and 
of will to acoomplish, and a unity of thought, of pur- 
pose, and of affection to each other, and to the lie, which 
would hold them together under all possible circum- 
stances. A combination this, of mental and moral char- 
acteristics which ordinary minds do not possess. Ma- 
cauiey, the historian, in commenting upon the subtle 
conspiracies against the life of William iii, remarks, 
that while a conspiracy is confined to one mind it may 
not become known, but that it is impossible for a com- 
pany of conspirators to hold together long without some 
one of them making the crime known. And this, though 
bound to each other by most solemn oaths. But these 
men held together, a compact unyeilding, influential 
body. Within fifty days of that date they preached in 
that city that Jesus had arisen from the dead. Kings 
and Councils could not alter their conviction on this 
point. Suffering, privation, the fear of persecution, the 
prospect of death could not hinder them from preach- 
ing it. 

And the whole change in most of them was wrought 



192 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



within fifteen hours. That was a day of sudden revolution 
of feelings. In the morning profound sorrow bowed down 
women and men alike.- In the evening all was joy. Idle 
tales were found true. Hopes all dead suddenly sprang 
up full of life. In the morning, faith in Jesus as Mes- 
siah was all gone, and the future impenetrably dark. 
In the evening a light burst out which persecution could 
not quench. It was a day oi fragmentary and appar- 
ently discordant testimonies, a seeing, and running and 
telling, each saying what he had seen, or heard. There 
is no day like it in history. THE DEAD IS ALIYE! 
The Body, once bound, and pierced, was now before 
them with the marks of crucifixion upon it. The grave 
had seemed an absolute proof that death was stronge r 
than an absolutely holy life. But its degradation and 
dishonor had been wiped away. Jesus' character, claims 
and words had received most ample and honorable vin- 
dication. He was declared to be the Son of God. Hav- 
ing scattered the seeds of resurrection-life in the prov- 
inces of death He had arisen the Conqueror of it, and of 
all the false accusations against Himself, and had demon- 
strated by fact His words, "I am the Resurrection and 
the Life." In this triumphant resurrection the course 
of nature had received a new direction. The new crea- 
tion had begun. Human thought had been started in 
new channels. The past was no longer a deplorable 
mistake, but a golden legacy. The future was full of 
blessing. Suddenly the whole company of believers are 
con scious of their vocation. Intrepid faith, j oyous labor, 
holy zeal, consciousness of victory fill heart and voice. 
Forth they go to conquer the world for their Lord. 



THE HOLY RESTJKEECnOH". 193 

And that gladness still lives. Easter day is crowned 
with songs and flowers. The voice of rejoicing is now 
heard, as it was on that first Easter day, in the taberna- 
cles of the righteons. And Ghristos ho cmestee, Christ 
is risen, is the glorions greeting of christian friends. 

Now, how acconnt for this sudden, this amazing 
change in the thinking and acting of the disciples ? this 
powerful conviction? this permanent revolution? 
It conld not possibly have been accomplished by any in- 
ternal process. There was nothing in the popular be- 
liefs, nor in the Grecian or Roman thinking,* nor in 
current interpretation of the prophecies which could be- 
get the idea of an actual resurrection. -J* Shall we with 
^Matthew Arnold J deny the^act, and account for the be- 
lief of the disciples by saying that what they call an 
understanding, was a mz'sunderstanding of Jesus' words 
(in Luke xviii, 31-34.; John ii, 22.) about His res- 
urrection? True, His words made upon them a pro- 
found impression. Though understood not when spoken, 
(Luke xviii, 34) they were not forgotten. True, after 
the events had occurred they recalled His words. (John 
ii. 22, xii, 16.) But it is also true that before His death 
they questioned with themselves what the rising from 
the dead should mean; (Mark, ix. 10), and that even after, 
some of them had seen the empty grave they knew not 
the Scriptures that He must rise a^ain from the dead. 

L*When Paul at Athens preached the resurrection, he and his 
subject were objects of ridicule, and Festus called Jesus' resurrec- 
tion a superstition. See Acts xviii. 32, xxv. 19. also xxvi. 24.] 

[fSee Matt. xvi. 21-23; John ii. 22.] 

[\God and the Bible. Eng. Ed. page 263.] 



194 



THE HOLY EESTJEKECTION. 



(John, xx, 9.) The empty grave will not convince them 
of the fact, and if so, surely by no mental processes 
could they work up in their own minds a belief of the 
idea as actualized. They could not see how resurrection 
could be, and hence could not think it out as a fact. 
They did not look at the fact in the light of Jesus' say- 
ings, but they looked at the sayings in the light of the 
fact. The fact solved the mysteries that were in His 
words. The fact poured a flood of light upon all His 
teachings, and upon all the Scripture. It was the key 
which fitted all His words, unlocked the meaning of His 
instructions, and opened to their view the great truths 
concerning Himself which prophecy and promise had 
announced. How then could these things either mis- 
understood, or not understood at all before, be the foun- 
dation on which to erect an imaginary fact — if such a 
phrase is allowable ? Words that He spake had led many 
to abandon Him. (John vii). But not one who saw Him 
alive after death ever wavered for a moment in their 
attachment to Him and His cause. 

Shall we say that this belief was formed by a vision, ner- 
vous convulsions, phantoms of the disordered imagina- 
tion of hysterical women, and weak-minded, weak-nerved 
men ? Was it the result of Kenan's "sacred moments 
when the passion of a hallucinated woman gave the 
world a resurrected God?" Christian thought started 
by an apparition! Christian society organized by self- 
deception! The church founded upon a falsehood! The 
regeneration of the world effected by a fraud! Call this 
rational if you will, but do not suppose that it ever can 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



195 



stand before the judgment seat of conscience, or of his- 
tory. Eo. This was a new belief in the world, and it 
could not have originated except in a new fact external 
to man, and supported by the most indubitable, experi- 
mental evidence. The fact, further, must have been 
clear enough to remove the last shade of doubt from the 
thinking, and powerful enough to start men upon a new, 
most unexpected and most difficult career. And an out- 
ward fact meeting all these conditions must have been 
manifested. For, only thus can the sudden change in 
the apostles be explained. And surely if ever the foun- 
tains of human life bubbled up and sent forth the streams 
of deep inward conviction, it was on that eventful night 
when Jesus stood in their midst alive from the dead. 
And this grand subjective revolution in the soul and 
life of the helpless band which could only rest upon the 
objective revelation, the resurrection of the Lord, at- 
tested and glorified itself, by this thorough change, as a 
divine fact. So also did the change effected in the cross, 
whereby what had been a sign of the deepest disgrace 
became a sign of the highest honor. 

So conclusive was the testimony that all the disciples 
lelieved 'it, that Paul was changed by it from a relentless 
enemy into a life-long and ardent friend; and that the 
whole face of history was permanently changed by it. 
Always and everywhere, in all their addresses and in 
all their letters the apostles give special prominence to 
the fact, It was the key note of all their preaching. At 
Pentecost Peter affirmed, "This Jesus hath God raised 
up, whereof we are witnesses." To the crowd in Sol- 



196 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



omon's porch greatly wondering at the miracle wrought 
upon the lame man at the gate "Beautiful," he declared 
that it was the name of Jesus, whom God had raised 
from the dead, and through faith in His name as Risen, 
that the man had been made whole. To the Council 
who were grieved that they preached through J esus the 
resurrection of the dead, and had arrested him and John, 
and demanded of them to tell by what power and name 
they had wrought a miracle on the lame man, Peter ans- 
wered: "By the name of Jesus, whom ye crucified, whom 
God raised from the dead." When brought again a few 
days after before the Council, and charged with having 
anew preached a Risen Christ in the city, they all ans- 
wered, "ye slew Jesus; but God raised Him up, and ex- 
alted Him with His right hand a Prince and a Saviour." 
To Cornelius and the company assembled in his house 
at Casserea Peter declared, "that Jesus whom they slew, 
God raised up, and showed openly to chosen witnesses." 
At Antioch Paul declared that God had fulfilled the 
promise given to the fathers in raising up Jesus again. 
He repeated the same at Athens and Corinth. Every- 
where it was the same. With great power gave the 
apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. 
(Acts ii, 32; iii, 15, 16; iv, 10; v, 30, 31,; x, 39, 40; 
xiii, 58-39; xvii, 31; 1 Cor. xv ? 19.) What was declared 
by word of mouth was penned down in all their letters. 
It was the foundation of all their own experience and 
preaching. It, with its twin-truth, "Christ was cruci- 
fied," was the one fact which was constantly brought 
forward in all their discourses, and in all their defenses 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



197 



of conduct. They zealously announced it before Kings 
and Councils, and told it to the people as the foundation 
of salvation and 'as the spring of joy. 

Throughout the apostolic letters not one attempt is 
made to establish the tact.* They ever speak of it as a 
fact well-known, and universally received by the church. 
The sufferings of Jesus and His resurrection are constantly 
mentioned together as facts of equal weight and of equal 
validity. And the profound impression which the facts 
made upon Paul appears in his, "that I may know the 
fellowship of His sufferings and, (not the fact, but) the 
power of His resurrection." It was the great funda- 
mental truth in all his preaching, as witness his word on 
Mars' hill, to the sceptical, philosophical Athenians, and 
also his word to the practical and worldly-wise King 
Agrippa, at Csesarea. So would he have it as a funda- 
mental fact in his experience:"that I may know the pow- 
er of His resurrection." Know it in its fulness, sweep, 
and significance. Know it as the mighty inspiration of 
every thought. Know it in its transforming power up- 
on the character. Know it in all its blessedness and 
felt elevation, in every hour of life and in the agony of 
death. And this power he felt. The fact and its con- 
sequences placed him, in a certain sense, on the immor- 
tal side of death. It peopled his heart with aspirations 
after a glory and immortality assured and unspeakably 
desirable. It urged him onward in that unparalleled 

[*1 Coi. xv, is no exception. In it Paul reiterates what he had 
constantly preached, and shows that Jesus' resurrection is the foun- 
dation of the resurrection of believers.] 



198 



THE HOLY HESL'RRECTION. 



career which blazed like the sun carrying life and joy to 
multitudes. And in his profound experimental acquain- 
tance with these facts, the other disciples and early con- 
verts shared. The fact of Jesus' triumph over death 
and session on the Father's throne filled them with the 
most exalted conceptions of His character. Resurrection 
not only wrought conviction, and opened truth, shed a 
flood of light on the prophetic Scriptures and upon Jesus' 
teaching, recalled, and made plain sayings of His which 
had be n hitherto not understood,* but it also was the 
Divine solution of all their difficulties, and the Divine 
remedy for all their sorrows. Its mighty power was 
manifested throughout their whole career. "While Je- 
sus was yet with them" many finally abandoned Him 
and His career. On the night of His death, all, even 
the most faithful, steadfast and heroic had forsaken Him 
and fled. But resurrection recalled all these last, and 
bound them to Him forever. It animated them with new 
motives. It gave a firm ground for an intelligent faith to 
rest upon, and assured them of success in their mission. 
It made their lives sublime, and threw over them a halo 
of glory which no persecution could obscure, and death 
itself could not dim. And as they went forth with all 
the glorious greetings of Easter morning, and told the 
world of the Conqueror over death, Who had demon- 
strated by fact that He "was the Resurrection and the 
Life," the whole face of history was permanently changed. 
And so profoundly have they wrought, by the Spirit, this 
conviction in:o the heart of humanity, that sword, sci- 

[*See, for example, Luke xvii, 31-34; John ii, 22; xii, 16, &c] 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 199 

encs, skeptical criticism and every form of attack have 
in vain tried during 1900 years to cast it to the ground. 
~No weapon formed against it has prospered. No power 
has been able to loosen its hold upon the intellect and 
heart of man. 

'If all this testimony to the resurrection of Jesus is 
worth nothing, no testimony is worth .anything. Its en 
ormous weight must crush every attempt to deny the 
fact. In vain scepticism hore concentrates and consum- 
mates itself, working to reduca the fact to a myth, or to 
the bare idea and symbolism of life. For here, life is in its 
highest energy. And to say that this is death, or a lie, 
is a supposition too monstrous for belief. "The false- 
hood of all this testimony would be more miraculous 
than the event which it relates." We close this part of 
the argument with a remark from Heinrich Ewald,a writer 
whose sympithies for orthodoxy were certainly not 
strong, and whose critical power and profound scholar- 
ship none will question: "Nothing stands more histori- 
cally certain than that Jesus rose from the dead, and ap- 
peared again to His followers, or than that their seeing 
Him again was the beo-innino; of a higher faith, and of 
all their christian work in the world. It is equally cer- 
tain that they saw Him, not as a common man, or as a 
ghost risen from the grave, but as the only Son of God 
— already more than man at once in nature and power; 
and that all who thus believed Him, recognized at once, 
and instinctively His unique Divine dignity, and firmly 
believed in it henceforth. The Twelve and others had, 
indeed, learned to look on Him even in life, as the True 



200 THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 

Messianic King, and the Son of God, but from the mo- 
ment of His re-appearing they recognized more clearly 
and fully the Divine idea of His nature, and saw in Him 
the Conqueror of death. And the two pictures of Him 
fixed in their minds were in their essence identical. 
They knew that He who now stood before them in all 
the glory of resurrection was the very same that they 
knew before His crucifixion." 

Jesus showed Himself alive by many infallible proofs, 
(Acts i, 3.)* And Holtsman, a learned free-thinker, as- 
signs A. J>. 80 at the latest, as the year of its appearance.f 
We may further remark that all critics agree that the 
Epistles to the Romans and Corinthians were written by 
Paul, and some time between the winter of A. D. 58-59 
to the spring of A. D. 59-60. The first great persecu- 
tion began A. D. 64. By evidences of which the sen- 
ses could take cognizance, and that of the most satis- 
factory kind, Jesus convinced His disciples (a) that He 
was not a spirit or shadow, but a genuine Man, (b) a 
Risen Man, (c) and that this Man was one and the same 
Man that they had been associated with during the three 
preceeding years. Of these facts they had not, could not 
have, the slightest possible doubt. JNor can any one 
wiio accepts their testimony. And were the fact of res- 

[*Zeller, one of the latest rationalistic writers, after the fullest 
investigation, and severest criticism, has acknowledged the au- 
thenticity of The Acts. His judgment is that the whole book is 
the work of one and the s ime author, that this same author wrote 
the third Gospel, and that this author was Luke, Paul's companion 
in travel. (Apostel Geschecte page 387, 414, 516.)] 

[fSchenkel's Diet. Bib. Art. Acts of the Apostles.'] 



THE HOLT EESUftEECTIOX. 201 

direction an isolated one, and were it not further, that 
the most tremendous consequences are involved in and 
proceed from it, it would probably be received unreserved- 
ly and universally, and be then re-legated to the region of 
those phenomenal incidents which amaze for a while, but 
are uninfhiential in human affairs. 

But it was immeasureably more than an extraordinary 
occurrence. After the appearances on the first dav, and 
the one to Thomas on the eighth day, Jesus did not 
(so far as the narratives show) any more attempt to de- 
monstrate His actual bodily presence with them and in 
the same Body, now spiritual, that He previously poss- 
essed, than He had during His life before death attempted 
to prove His actual presence. It was a fact which He 
took for granted that they recognized. All the other ap- 
pearances had, and so had these, something immensely 
higher* in view than the mere convincing of men that He 
had actually come forth alive from the tomb. This we have 
already seen. In one aspect a result from the processes 
of nature, the fact in another aspect was wholly outside 



[*Thatthe reader may examine this point we give the places. Matt, 
mentions two appearances, one in Jems ileni, morning of the res- 
urrection, one in G-alilee many days after (xxviii, 9, 10, 16, 17). 
Mark speaks of three, all on the day of the rising, (xvi, 9, 12, 14.) 
Luke mentions five, three on the day of the rising.and two on the day 
of the Ascension. (xxiv,13,34, 36, 50, 51; Acts i, 4-9. John mentions 
four, (xx, 15, 19, 26; xxi, 1,) Paul mentions fire, (1 Cor. xv, 5-8), 
some of which are mentioned by one, some by two or more of the 
Evangelists, and one (that to James i told by no other. And His 
statement, "in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bod- 
ily," i. e. capable, because possessed of a Body, of manifesting 
Himself in a bodily form i Col. ii, 9 ) was based upon His owd 
sight of Him in His glorified Body.] 



20 '2 TEE HOLT KESUKKECnOS. 

of those processes. IV o human agent and no natural 
force hai any hand in its production. But it is not 
more a stnpendons than it is a potential fact. It is its 
vast e nseojiences that make it so significant. All the 
results of Jesus' mission are wrapped np in it. The vital 
evidence of His Sen. ship an I Messiahship comes from it. 
Of these things "the words that I speak" said He before 
His death, "are proof: and the works that I do bear wit- 
ness of Me. But the only signs that shall be given to an 
evil and a sign-seeking generation as the final attestation 

CD O O 

of these claims, is the sign of Jonah, the prophet. For 
a- he was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, 
so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights 
in the heart of the earth. Destroy this temple of My 
Boot, and in three days 1 wiii raise it up. Hawing the 
power to do both I lay down My life that I may take 
it ao-ai (Matt. xii. 39. TO: John ii. 19; x, 16, 17,) 

The previous resurrections were more properly tem- 
porary restorations to the Life before death, with its lim- 
itations, sorrows and close. The raised ones died again. 
But Jesus' resurrection was the revelation of a new life, 
one free from earthly limitations, and which could not be 
subject to death. -Death could have no more dominion 
oner Him." He came forth from the tomb an eternal 
Man. with a manhood perfected, with a Body which shared 
completely in the totality of the marvellous fullness of 
The Spirit. Its identity was the same, but yet it had un- 
dergone an extraordinary change. Along with natural- 
ness ('shown in a series of simpie and homelv facts a its 
supernatural features were constantly manifested. It 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 203 

was a spiritual Body, powerful, glorious and free from 
the limitations by which it had before been fettered. 
And yet it was able to enter into those limitations. It 
ate fish and honey, yet was nourished no one knew when 
or how. It made itself known, was visibly, tangibly 
present, yet instantly disappeared in invisibility. It 
moved invisibly from place to place; was now here, now 
there; came, uo one knew whence, staid, no one knew 
where, went, no one knew whither. It entered into, and 
departed from a house without audible step, and with- 
out passing through an opening. It was seen standing 
on a shore, yet without injuring the law of gravitation 
rose above the clouds. These facts show that it pos- 
sessed at the same time the qualities and attributes of 
both the natural and the supernatural body, i.e. of one, 
the life-principle of which is The Spirit (1 Cor. xv) 
a Body through which J esus first breathed upon, after- 
wards shed down upon, the disciples The Spirit. 

The writers in crivincr these facts are well aware of 
their seeming- contradictoriness. In His '"while I was 
yet with you,"' they give Jesus statement of them. They 
are wholly unique. They could belong only to a tran- 
sition period, one in which the Body while undergoing 
a process of transformation, belonged in some respects 
to the present, and in other respects to a higher order of 
things. Such a Body could not permanently stay on 
earth. But did the Conqueror of death and the grave 
depart in the ordinary way His character and cause 
would thereby be destroved. But death could not touch 
Him who had arisen in the power of an endless life. 



201 



THE HOLY RESUBEECTION. 



Ascension must be the consequence, completion and 
erown of His work. It mnst be His glorification, as 
Resurrection bad been His transformation. It too, He 
had declared, was the contingent fact npon which de- 
pended the coming down of The Spirit and the applica- 
tion of all the benefits of His redemption to man and 
to the cosmos. And having accomplished all that be- 
longed to this transition period He left earth by a vis- 
ible ascension. Without effort, and by His own inher- 
ent energy He rose np slowly and majestically until a 
clond received Him ont of sight. ^Vnen next seen by 
man He was in Heaven in His sooma pneumatilcon, and 
standing by the right hand of God. 

-These facts are wholly beyond onr experience. They 
are supernatural. They are astounding. The honest, 
thoughtful mind stops before them, pressed with diffi- 
culties, troubled with doubts. Man's testimony is suf- 
ficient to establish the bare fact of resurrection. For of 
this the senses could take cognizance. But the poten- 
tial facts — the ground, the cause, the reasons for the re- 
vivification and resurrection of the Body, and its resurrec- 
tion-character — were beyond the reach of the senses, and 
so of human testimony. They are designed to reach the 
consciousness, so must be supported by that kind of tes- 
timony which will produce in it the conviction of their 
reality, and displace doubt by that intelligent faith which 
it was designed to beget. They are supernatural facts, 
so could be supported only by supernatural testimony. 
To hazard eternity on any less stable foundations would 
be the height or folly. To accept less would be un- 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 205 

scientific and illogical, and conld lead only to credulity. 
But this is mental and moral degradation. All this Je- 
sus recognized. He was too noble, too holy, too regard^ 
ful of man to make any snch a demand. He placed the 
ground of confidence in these supernatural facts on an in- 
finitely stronger foundation. He proved them by the 
infallible testimony of the living God. This was the 
strong first testimony as to the facts which He gave after 
His resurrection, (i.e. after His first appearances,) and He 
gave this proof before He made Himself personally 
known. Given first to the two on their way to Emmaus,. 
and subsequently to the whole company, it must be of the 
supremest importance. To it we turn: 

The facts must occur, said He, (a) from the necessity 
of the case, and (b) because they were" fore- announced in 
the Scriptures. "Thus it is written, and thus must (edei) 
the (toon) Christ suffer, and rise from the dead the third 
day." The resurrection in the particular way in which, 
and the particular ends for which it occurred must be.. 
This verb, edei (an impersonal one) signifies in the Greek 
classics "it needs," "there is need of," "it is binding on 
one." This also is its constant meaning in the New 
Testament. It designates that which for some inevitable 
reason, — the circumstances of the case, the fitness of 
things, the rightness of the thing itself, or the appoint- 
ment of God — must occur (John iii, 30; iv, 4; Matt, xxvii, 
10; Heb. ix, 29; 1 Cor. xv, 29; Acts ix, 16; xiv, 52, &c). 
It expresses the unavoidable in the nature of things, the 
inevitable. This necessity was upon Jesus from the 
first, and He felt its pressure. "I must be about My 



206 THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 

Father's business,'' "I must preach the Kingdom of 
God." "I must work." "I must work the works of 
Him that sent Me, to-day." In speaking of His coming 
sorrows He also declared this necessity, the what to Him 
was inevitable. "The Son of Man must go up to Jer- 
usalem," "must be delivered into the hands of men," 
■'must go as it is written of Him," ''must be lifted up,*' 
and "this that is written of Me, ; He was reckoned anions 
the transgressors,' must be accomplished." He further 
said that this inevitable must be followed by another in- 
evitable: "He must suffer and die, and must be raised 
again the third day." This full announcement was so 
well known that His enemies attempted to prevent it 
— as if they could arrest the inevitable." And after 
this "must" was fulfilled, this fact was pointed out by 
an angel, and emphasized by the Risen Lord. (Matt, 
xv, 21; Mark viii, 33; Luke ii, 59; v, 43; ix, 22; John 
iii, 14; xii, 34: Matt, xxviij 63; Luke xxiv, 7, 26, 44, 
46; John xx, 6. See also in Acts iii, 21; xvii, 5; 1 Cor. 
xv, 25, 53; 2 Cor. v, 10 &c). 

The "must of the work" and the "must of the suffer" 
were not a physical, but a legal and a moral necessity. But 
in the "must rise again" there were, strictly speaking, two 
necessities: one growing out of the nature of things, and 
this was a natural, and the other growing out of the "thus 
it is written," and this was a moral, or supernatural 
necessity. 

The resurrection was inevitable from the operation of 
natural law. The inorganic is not vital. Tne spirit is 
not mortal. Death is restricted to the region between 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 207 

the two worlds. The plant lives in the root and seed. 
Hence its death is almost only an appearance of dying. 
The animal lives only in the general life of nature. Hence 
it has no full individual life to resign, and its dying, 
though awful and repulsive to it, is really no complete 
death. Actual death begins with conscious man, and is 
so far as we know, to cease with him, and to be trans- 
formed into new and conscious life. From Gen. iii and 
especially from what is said of the Tree of Life in the 
Garden, we see that man, as created, was not to die 
but to undergo a transition from the natural to the 
spiritual state by a change corresponding to that spoken 
of 1 Cor, xv, 51; 2 Cor. v, 4, and which was typed in 
the transation of Enoch and Elijah. But becoming sub- 
ject to the effects of moral death, this transformation 
passed over into corruption and physical death. The 
entire weight of death pressed upon man. And Jesus 
in becoming man's Substitute became his partner in this 
subjection to death. He, hence, must die. But from 
the constitution of His Person, He must also, according 
to the laws of nature, which are but inevitable sequences 
from, or rather nothing else than the expression of the 
will of the Creator, rise again from the dead- For as 
by a natural law "sin when it has arrived at maturity 
in its growth (Greeh) bringeth forth — apokuei, a verb 
which expresses the necessity of the result according to 
natural law — death; so, by the same law, holiness, when 
perfected, must bring forth life. Jesus was absolutely 
free from sin. He was perpetually nourished by holi- 
ness. He is, in a sense so real and exclusive that to feed 



208 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION 



on Him is to live, the vital principle of man. And this 
He is, because (a) He was sent by, and (b) He lived dia 
through, and on the living Father. (John v, 57). 
From Him He drew life, light and nourishment, incess- 
antly. He perfectly reproduced on earth, and in a hu- 
man life, the life of The Father. He was God lived by 
a Man. To Him it was given to have life in Himself. 
(John v, 26.). His humanity then, must have been ^per- 
fectly sound. There, hence, conld have been in Him 
nothing that could cause death, nothing from, or of 
which it is the result. And hence He could not be 
naturally subject to death. It could not come to Him 
by the working of any natural law in Himself as by any 
decay or breakdown of the powers of life. If it touched 
Him, it must come upon Him by His own voluntary 
permission and from the moral necessity of the position 
in which He had voluntarily placed Himself as the Sub- 
stitute for sinners. He must fulfill for man, the law 
which condemns man to death. Hence, from the mo- 
ment when He accepted that position, death, because in 
that chain, was inevitable in the sequences of events. 
In H^m the law, and so death, was fulfilled, ended, taken 
out of the way. In His death corruption was overcome. 
Rather, strictly speaking, death was transformed into 
that transformation unto which men were originally de 
signed. Hence, there must be a complete transforma- 
tion, L e. resurrection. This is the demand of both natural 
and moral law. His resurrection, then, in this aspect 
of it, and from the constitution of His humanity, was 
neither supernatural, nor miraculous, but normal 
and natural, and necessary in, and to the har- 



THE HOLY "RESTJ EKECTTON . 20 'J 

mony of His character, and was demanded alike by natural 
law, and by the attributes of His Humanity. Resurrec- 
tion, then, as well as the death, mu t have been in the 
chain of events. It must have been as impossible for Him 
not to rise, as for Him, in the position which He occupied, 
not to die. Ordinarily death and consequent corruption 
come from the action of the principle of sin working, 
through one natural law, in humanity as sinful. But 
from the constitution of Jesus' Person, and from the ab- 
solute purity and perfect soundness of His Humanity, 
both physically and morally, it was not possible tha. He 
should be holden of death. (Acts ii, 24.). There must, 
hence, have been in Him those powers of reaction from 
whichjwhen He was dead, Divine power, working through 
another natural law, must bring forth life. And this is 
resurrection. And the flowing forth of the blood and wa- 
ter from His wounded side confirms this reasoning based 
upon the constitution of His Humanity. For this fact 
shows that at the moment when dissolution begins inor- 
dinary bodies, that vital reaction had already begun in 
His Body which some hours later manifested itself in 
resurrection.* 

His resurrection was also a moral necessity. First, 
in that it and ascension were indissolubly linked to- 
gether as integral parts of the life of Jesus. They were 
ones ot a series of the facts which constitute the subject- 
matter of redemption, and which, beginning in the eter- 
nal purpose, and going on through the life, death, res- 
urrection and ascension, intercession, and eomin^ acain. 

u *See The Holy Death, pages, 227, 241.] 



210 THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 

rnust continne to be in fall operation until lie shall have 
finished His whole work, and shall have delivered up the 
Kingdom to the Father. Let one link be missing and 
the chain of events would be helplessly broken. But 
this cannot be. And so Resurrection and Ascension 
must be, each in its own order and time. Ascension, 
in so far as it related to the power of Jesus, in Himself 
considered, because foretold, promised to Him.and sought 
by Him in prayer, must be. (Ps. lxviii, 18; Heb. xii, 
3; John vi, 62; xviii, 3.) It was vitally connected with 
His dignity and work as Man, was the only befitting 
consummation of His whole earthly life, was the last 
of Him seen by man, and was the attestation of His 
word, "I came from God, and I go to God." It was 
further His elevation in His character as the Son of 
Man to "the form of God," that divine condition which 
He had from eternity, and of which He emptied Him- 
self when He became Man. By and in it He returns 
as the perfected Fruit of this life's development to the 
Father, from whom He, under the impulse of love had 
come as the Eternal Word. And it must also be be 
cause of His relation to man. Ascension in Him per- 
fects God's design in regard to humanity. He ascended 
carrying our humanity, redeemed, purified, exalted, to 
the Father's right hand. But He left behind a company, 
the germ of a new world. God's eternal plan, with a 
view to which He had created the world, was, in it to 
form of believers a family like to His Son, the Pattern 
and Prototype of the race. As vegetables and animals 
are the unconscious organs of the life which He (the 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 211 

Creator) gives to nature, so this family were to be the 
intelligent organs of the holy life of the Creator as the 
Personal God. In giving reality to this plan, the Crea- 
tor must accomplish it, first in the resurrection and as- 
cension of His Son, as the Son of Man; and secondly, in 
making this family, actual partakers of Him. (Eph* 
ii, 6; i, ii; Heb. ii, 10). This, which began on Pen- 
tecost, must continue to Parousia. Then the Son showed 
that He had lawfully obtained sovereignty over the earth 
— a fact which has ever since been apparent in the ever 
enlarging of His family. And when the nations of earth, 
like the cities of Israel, shall have been gone over, and 
this gospel shall have been preached among all nations 
for a witness, then will this be completed at Parousia. 
Then will His Kingdom be manifested. Then shall 
His feet stand upon the Mount of Olives (Zech. xiv, 3); 
and coming; to Jerusalem will He then be^in the new 
epoch and reign. Hence ascension must be, and in or- 
der to it, resurrection. And contingent upon both is 
another series of facts all connected with the formation of 
the Holy Family — the coming of The Spirit, the forma- 
tion and growth of the church, the regeneration of sinners, 
the sanctifieation of saints, and thus, the foundation of 
the family — the present existence of which is proof infag 
ible that both resurrection and ascension have already 
occurred. 

This necessity is apparent; further, in the words "all 
that Jesus began to do and teach until the day m which 
He was taken up." All previous to that day — so this 
verse says — was the beginning of that the completion of 
which must be after He was taken up. Ascension, then, 



212 THE HOLT KESUBEECTION. 

is in the middle of His work. It closes the first and it 
opens the second part of it. He began His work while 
the visible, He carries it on as the invisible Christ — not 
only up there, but down here, riot only among, but in 
us, not only in one, but in every place. ALark shows 
the connection in his last verse: So then the Lord 

was received up into heaven and they 

went forth, and preached every where." And eveiy 
reader of the Acts and Epistles knows how constantly, as 
we have already shown, the same fact is brought out, 
either directly or by allusion, in those writings. The whole 
historic development of the church is, according to the 
documents, the continuation only of the divine-human 
life of Jesus on earth. All the going on in its progress, 
all its activity and power, all gracious offices to the be- 
lievers, all the strength for holy living, all cheering and 
animating views and assurances to them dying of being 
then present with the Lord as to their spirits and of 
their bodies, united to Him, resting in hope until His 
coming.all assurances of His coming again, and of the res^ 
urrection of their bodies then, and of their being caught 
up to meet Him in the air — in a word, all that enlivens, 
animates urges onward a believer living, and gives cool- 
ness, joy, intelligent hope in dying comes from His (Je- 
sus') constant activity by The Spirit All this neces- 
sitated His being in Heaven as the glorified Man, and 
this He could not be without both resurrection and as- 
cension. And since both are a part and proof of His work, 
it is clear, that had His life closed in irremidable death 
it would have been a failure. His atonement would have 



THE HOLT RESURRECTION. 213 

been valueless, every hope and aspiration beyond this 
life would have perished in His grave, and the church 
could never have been. 

It was again also a moral necessity, in that both had 
been promised to Him by the Father. The Spirit of 
prophesy speaking through Isaiah had declared that His 
prayer for restoration from the grave should be answered : 
Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard 
Thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped Thee, 
(xlix, 8.). And speaking through David, at an earlier 
day, He had declared, that to the Messiah there would 
be given the fullest assurance of His own resurrection 
-and ascension: "My flesh shall rest in hope. For Thou 
wilt not leave My soul in Hades; neither wilt Thou suf- 
fer Thine Holy One to see corruption.* Thou wilt show 
Me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; 
at Thy right hand are pleasures forevermore." (Ps. xvi, 
8-11; com. Acts ii, 25-28.) This was the word of the 
living, Personal God to Him. And since it is not pos. 
sible for God to lie, this word makes it morally necessary 
that Jesus must rise again. 

o 

There was further again, a moral necessity for His res- 
urrection, based on the fact that it was foretold. This fact 
Jesus brough: most prominently forward upon the day of 
His resurrection. To the two discip'.es on their way to Em - 
mans He remarked, that if they had believed all that the 
prophets had spoken, they would have believed that He 
had actually arisen from the dead on that the third day 

[*The phrase, "Thou wilt not suffer/' Acts ii, 27, seems to im- 
ply that Jesus' Body was naturally corruptible. But the Greek 
oude doitseis, wilt not give, shows that it was not.] 



214: THE HOLY JiESURRECTION. 

since His crucifixion. Even in the absence of sensible 
evidence they would, on the authority of the written 
word, have believed the fact. And it was not until after 
Hj had established the fact from the Scriptures, that 
He made Himself known to them in the breaking of 

o 

bread. It was this proof too, which He gave the com- 
pany of disciples on that same evening, He first tra ; • 
quilized their minds, convinced them of the identity of 
His Person, and upbraided them for their unbelief, and 
hardness of heart in not belie vino- those who had seen 
Him after He was arisen. He then rested the fact of 
the certainty and character of His resnrrection upon the 
necessitv of all that was written of Him being 1 fulfilled 
as He had told them before His decease.* His method 
of procedure was this: He first breathed on them, saying, 
Receive ye The Holy Spirit. Simultaneously, He opened 
their understandings that they might understand the 
Scriptures. To mind and heart thus prepared He said, 
"Thus it is written, and thus it is, hence, necessary (edei) 
that Christ should suffer, and should rise from the. dead 
the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins- 

[There are no express prophecies in the O. T. of the resurrection 
as a separate fact. Butthose which speak of His exaltation andglori- 
fication after His humiliation are very many. And these involve 
His resurrection as their beginning. We may mention a few. The- 
prophecy of Shiloh, of Ps. xvi, of ex. where Messiah sits at God's right 
hand, ruling, and of Dan. vii, 13, 14, where "universal dominion is 
given by the Ancient of days to one like the Son of Man," and of 
Zech. ix, 9, 10, xii. 10; xiii 7, xiv, 1-3. where His sceptre is world- 
wide, and His feet are to stand on Mount Olivet — all these im- 
ply the intervening resurrection. In fact all the prophecies which 
speak of His sufferings and subsequent glory are virtually so> 
many prophecies of His resurrection. We append a partial list which 
the reader may examine and compare fcr himself.] 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 215 

should be preached in His name among all nations, be- 
ginning at Jerusalem. The predictel facts were (a) 
Christ must suffer, (b) must rise the third day; (c) in 
His name, after having suffered these things,and, through 
resurrection and ascension having entered into His glory, 
repentance and remission of sins must be preached 
everywhere. (Luke xxiv, 26, 46-48). Houtoo — houto.os, 
— thus — thus. Thus T itis written, He said, and thereforb 
thus ede% it must he. Therefore, thus, and no otherwise, it 
is. It has come to pass become it must, and it must be- 
cause it is thus written. The "thus" of the one event, i. e. 
of the resurrection,corresponds to the "thus" of prophecy 
And before ever a word about it had been pleached, Je- 
sus declared that the "thus" of the other eve it, — L e. the 
preaching everywhere of repentance and remission of 
sins in His name "must be," — must correspond also to 
the "thus" of prophecy. It was surely the D'.vine pur- 
pose that these things should be. This purpose the 
Divine wisdom had made known, in writing, centuries 



PROPHECIES RESPECTING CHRIST. 
As the Son of God: Psa ii, 7. Fulfilled, Luke i, 32, 35. As the 
seed of woman: Gen. iii, 15. Fulfilled, Gal. iv, 4. As the seed of 
Abraham: Gen. xvii, 7; Geu. xxii, 18. Fulfilled, Gal. iii, 16. As 
the seed of Isaac : Gen. xxi, 12. Fulfilled, Heb. xi, 17-19. As the 
seed of Davin: Psa. cxxxii, 11; Jcr. xxiii, 5. Fulfilled, Acts xiii, 
23 ; Rom. i, 3. His coming at a set time : Gen. xlix 10 ; Dan. ix, 24, 
25. Fulfilled, Luke ii, 1. His being born of a virgin ; Isa. vii, 14. 
Fulfilled. Matt, i, 18; Luke ii, 7. His being called Immanuel: Isa. 
vii, 14. Fulfilled, Matt. i. 22. 23. His being born in Bethlehem of 
Judea: Micah v, 2. Fulfilled, Matt, ii, 1; Luke ii, 4-6. Great per- 
sons coming to adore Him: Psa. lxxii, 10. Fulfilled, Matt, ii- 1 11. 
Theslaying of the childrenat Bethlehem: Jer. xxxi, 15. Fulfilled, 
Matt, ii, 16-18. His being called out of Egypt: Hosea xi, 1 Ful- 
filled, Matt, ii, 15. His being preceded by John the Baptist; Isa. 
xl, 3; Mai. iii, 1. Fulfilled. Matt, iii, 1, 3 ; Luke i, 17. His being 
anointed with the Spirtt: Psa. xlv, 7; Isa. xi, 2; lxi, 1. Fulfilled, 



216 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

before, by the Divine Spirit, through the prophets. A 
Divine must (edei,) therefore, is concerned in their pas- 
sing into actual facts. On the unalterable purpose of 
God as thus made known, Jesus placed the certainty of 
the fact of His resurrection and ascension, and the con- 
sequences flowing therefrom, and therefore of the peculiar 
character of His resurrection Body. Had the disciples 
known the Scriptures, they — so Jesus declared — so soon 
as they saw the empty tomb, yea, even without seeing it 
empty, or even without seeing the risen Jesus Him- 
self, would have rested in the assurance that He had ac- 
tually arisen. And so soon as J esus had expounded unto 
them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Him- 
self they did believe the fact. After Pentecost they went 
every where preaching these as facts whose existence was 
necessitated from the foregoing Scriptures. Jesus had 
declared, so did they, that this was the all commanding 
demonstration of the fact of His resurrection. This 
gave the point and power to Peter's preaching on the 



Matt, iii, 16; John iii, 34; Acts x, 38. His being a Prophet like 
unto Moses : Deu. xviii, 15-18. Fulfilled, Acts iii, 20-22. His be- 
ing a Priest after tha order of Melchizcdek : Psa. cx, 4. Fulfille,d, 
Heb. v, 5, 9. His entering on His public ministry: Isa. lxi, 1 2. 
Fulfilled, Luke iv, 16-21, 43. His ministry commencing in Galilee : 
Isa. ix, 1, 2. Fulfilled, Matt, iv, 12-16, 23. His entering publicly 
into Jerusalem: Zee. ix, 9. Fulfilled, Matt, xxi, 1-5. His corning; 
into the temple : Hag. ii, 7, 8; Mai. iii, 1. Fulfilled, Matt, xxi, 12; 
Luke ii, 27-32; John ii, 13-16. His poverty: Isa. liii, 2. Fulfilled, 
Mark vi, 3; Luke ix, 58. His meekness and want of ostentation, 
Isa. xlit, 2. Fulfilled, Matt, xii, 15, 16, 19. His tenderness and com- 
passion: Isa. xl, 11; xlii, 3. Fulfilled, Matt, xii, 15, 20; Heb. iv, 15. 
His being without guile: Isa. liii, 9. Fulfilled, 1 Pet. ii, 22. His 
zeal: Psa. lxix, 9. Fulfilled, John ii, 17. His preaching by par- 
ables: Psa. lxxviii, 2. Fulfilled, Matt, xiii, 34, 35. His working 
miracles: Isa. xxxv, 5, 6. Fulfilled, Matt, xi, 4-6; John xi, 47. His 
bearing reproach: Psa. xxii, 6; lxix. 7, 9, 20. Fulfilled, Rom. 15, 3. 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 217 

day of Pentecost, and at the house of Cornelius. This 
gave that resistless force to Stephen's word, which car- 
ried home conviction to the conscience of those who 
heard it. They could not but feel that it was, but they 
would not accept it as, the fact. His argument, hence 
aroused against him all their murderous hate. This 
was Paul's all-conclusive argument at Corinth, Thess- 
alonica, and Antioch. This was the rock: Th.3 Scriptures 
have declared it therefore the fact must be, therefore is: 
upon which all the witnesses always and everywhere 
firmly planted themselves. This they openly, fearlessly, 
powerfully proclaimed. This made the Gospel the power 
of God unto salvation. Drop this out and the preach- 
ing of repentance and remission of sins, because they 
can be founded only upon the resurrection and the ante- 
cedent death, is not of the slightest avail. That preach- 
ing which drops them out can never work that stupen- 
dous, deep, and abiding change which the Scriptures 
call conversion. Preach these with the power of The 

His being rejected by His brethren: Psa. lxix, 8; Isa. xiii, 3. Ful- 
filled, John i, 11 ; 7. His being a stone of stumbling to the Jews : 
Isa. viii, 14. Fulfilled, Kom, ix, 35 ; 1 Pet. ii, 8. His being hated 
by the Jews : Psa. lxix, 4 ; Isa. xlix 7. Fulfilled, John xv, 24, 25. 
His being rejected by the Jewish rulers : Psa. i, 8' 22* Fulfilled, 
Matt, xxi, 41 ; John vii, 48. That Jews and Gentiles should combine 
against Him : Psa. ii, 1, 2. Fulfilled, Luke xxiii, 12; Acts iv, 27. 
His being betrayed by a friend; Psa. xli, 9; lv, 12-14. Fulfilled, 
John xiii, 18, 21. His disciples forsaking Him; Zech. xiii, 7. Ful- 
filled, Matt, xxvi, 31, 56. His being sold for thirty pieces of silver : 
Zech. xi, 12. Fulfilled, Matt. 26, 15. His price being given for a 
potter's field: Zech. xi, 13 Fulfilled, Matt, xxvii, 7. The intensity 
of His sufferings : Psa. xxii, 14, 15. Fulfilled, Luke xxii, 42, 44. 
His sufferings being for others: Isa. liii, 4-6, 12; Dan. ix 29. Ful- 
filled, Matt, xx, 28. His patience and silence under sufferings : Isa. 
liii, 7. Fulfilled, Matt, xxvi, 63 ; xxvii, 12-14. His being smitten 



218 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

Spirit, and the result, seen in noble christian characters, 
is as conspicuous to-day as in the days of yore. And 
since the salvation preached, received, enjoyed is a re- 
sultant from the facts of the sufferings, death, and res- 
urrection, and since — as is seen in the emphatic connec- 
tive Tern ' Luke xxiv, 46, 47 > — it is a part of the "thus 
it is written," present conversion to God, and present 
christian character-building furnish to men an ever-pres- 
ent and powerful testimony to the other facts in^ the 
chain, viz: the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. 

These facts spring from the eternal purpose, and be- 
long to the eternal plan. The incarnation of the Eter- 
nal word was not an after thought consequent upon the 
Fall. Though that may have modified its surroundings, 
it could not have induced it. His coming and all its conse 
rjuences were fore-ordained before the foundation of the 
w x orl<L (1 Pet. i, 20; Eev. xiii, 8, 17; Eph. i, 4; Matt, 
xxv, 34.) It is only when and as we apprehend these facts 
that we have a true conception of the world, and of hu- 

on the cheek: Micah v, 1. Fulfilled, Matt, xxvii, 30. His visage 
being marred: Isa. lii, 14; liii, 3. Fulfilled, John xix, 5. His be- 
ing spitted on and scourged: Isa. 1, 6. Fulfilled, Mark xir, 65; 
John xiv, 1. His hands and feet being nailed to the cross : Psa. 
xxii, 16. Fulfilled, John xix, 18; xx, 25. His being forsaken by 
God: Psa. xxii, 1. Fulfilled. Matt xxvii, 46. His being mocked: 
Psa. xxii, 7, 8. Fulfilled, Matt, xxvii, 39-44. Gall and vinegar be- 
ing given Him to drink: Psa. lxix. 21. Fulfilled, Matt, xxvii, 34, 
His garments being parted and lots cast for His vesture : Psa. xxii. 
18. Fulfilled, Mast, xxvii, 35. His being numbered with the 
transgressors : Isa. liii. 12. Fulfilled. Mark xv, 28. His intercession 
for His murderers: Isa. liii, 12. Fulfilled. Luke xxiii, 34. His 
death : Isa. liii, 12, Fulfilled, Matt, xxvii, 50. That a bone of Him 
should not be broken: Exo. xii, 46; Psa. xxxiv, 20. Fulfilled John 
xix, 33, 36. His being pierced: Zech. xii, 10. Fulfilled, John xix, 
34.37. His being buried with the rk h : Isa. liii, 9. Fulfilled, 



THE HOLY EESUKKECTION. 210 

manity. These facts were included in the thought of crea- 
tion. And since entrance into involves departure from 
the world, the departure as well as entrance had a place 
in the plan of creation. And since the entrance was by in- 
carnation, the departure could not be by death, so must 
be by ascension. "He that ascended is the same that 
had descended first into the lower parts of the earth." Res- 
urrection and ascension then must be, became included 
in the eternal plan. And since His the accomplishment 
of the purpose belonging to creation, but whose progress 
was defeated by the introduction of sin (Col. i. 15,) it 
follows that both man and the cosmos share in the res- 
toration and consummation of all things. So say the 
Scriptures. At the appointed times, and in the appointed 
order eternal power brought them out from ideas into ac- 
tualities. We study the facts. We study the Hebrew 
Scriptures. We see that the former are in exact accord 
with, the latter. We see Jesus Himself pointing out 
the correspondence between the two, and demonstrating 



Matt, xxvii, 57-90. His flesh not seeing corruption: Psa. xvi, 10* 
Fulfilled, Actsii, 31; xiii, 35; 1 Pet. iii, 10. His resurrection : Psa- 
xvi, 10 ; Isa. xxvi, 19. Fulfilled, Luke xxiv, 6, 31, 34. His ascen- 
sion : Psa. lxviii, 18. Fulfilled, Luke xxiv, 51 ; Acts i, 9 ; Eph. xiv, 
8. His sitting on the right hand of God: Psa. cx, 1. Fulfilled, 
Heb. i, 3. His exercising the priestly ofiice in Heaven : Zech. vi, 
13. Fulfilled, Rom viii, 34. His being the chief corner-stone of 
the Church : Isa. xxviii, 16. Fulfilled, 1 Pet. ii, 6, 7. His being 
King in Zion: Psa. ii, 6. Fulfilled, Luke i, 32 ; John xviii, 33-37. 
The conversion of the G-entiles to Him: Isa. xi, 10; xlii, 1. Ful- 
filled, Matt, i, 17, 21; John x, 16; Acts x, 45, 47; Isa. Iii, 7, com. 
Acts viii, 35. His righteous government : Psa. xlv, 67. Fulfilled, 
John, v, 30; Rev. xix, 11. His universal dominion: Psa. lxxii, 8; 
Dan. vii, 14. Fulfilled, Phi, ii, 9, 11. The perpetuity of His king- 
dom: Isa. iii, 7; Dan. vii. 14. Fulfilled, Luke i, 32, 33. 



220 THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 

the certainty of the events from the certainty of the "thus 
it is written." We see that all is in the eternal plan, 
so it must be that God's seal is upon both. The order is 
perfect. The argument is rational, logical, irresistible. To 
thinking men who honestly and thoroughly study both 
books — the book of the f ac s and the book of the fore- 
going Scriptures — it becomes an intellectual and moral 
conviction which nothing can disturb: "Jesus Christ 
died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; Jesus Christ 
was buried; Jesos Christ rose again according to the 
Scriptures." This is the word which, as Calvin finely 
expresses it, creates a conviction which asks not for 
reasons; a knowledge which accords with the highest 
reason, namely, knowledge in which the mind rests more 
firmly and securely than in any reason ; in fine, the con- 
viction which revelation from hea ven alone can produce. 

These testimonies were confirmed by many and mag- 
nificent miracles. "They went forth and preached, the 
Lord working with them, and confirming the word with 
signs following;" "God also bearing them witness both 
with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles and 
gifts of the Holy Spirit." These were publicly wrought 
and manifested. Pentecost with its tongues was a con- 
firmation. So were the attestations which everywhere 
accompanied the preaching of the word. And the more 
conspicuous, lasting and important of these by far, were 
those revolutionary and beneficient changes wrought in 
the thinking and acting of men, in their social, business, 
and political lile, and in the character of their homes. 
These evidences are capable of almost indefinite expan- 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION, 



221 



sion. TLey are familiar to every one. One is patent, 
to every eye that will but look, viz: "This Gospel must 
be preached among all nations for, not the world's con- 
version, fthis will not be, Scripture says, before Jesus 
comes) but, for A WITNESS." And until all this array 
of testimony is completely overthrown it is intellectually 
impossible to eliminate from the world's thinking the 
fact that Jesus of Nazareth arose from the dead. 

That fact is now in the consciousness of humanity. 
To make it the resting place of an influential personal 
faith it must pass into the personal consciousness. As a 
natural fact it can be brought within one's grasp by human 
agency competent to convey it. But as a supernatural fact 
it can come within one only by a supernatural agency. The 
very nature of the testimony, that the resurrection oc- 
curred because the"thus it is written"made this necessary. 
No one can receive it, and the fact to which it testifies 
into the consciousness except through both a human and 
a supernatural agent and witness. Both are at hand, 
Ye Apostles are, ye shall be, witnesses. Preachers and 
teachers both they were to be; but above, and before all 
witnesses, eye, ear, mouth, life witnesses of the facts of 
Jesus' life, death, resurrection and ascension, as rooted 
in the "must be." "We speak what we know." The 
other agent is The Spirit. "We are witnesses, and so 
also is the Holy Spirit." The two testimonies are con- 
current. He alone can, and acting through these wit- 
nesses does convey to the personal consciousness the 
supernatural conviction of the supernatural fact. It 
was He who carried this conviction through the hundred 



222 



THE HOLY RESURRECTION. 



and twenty to the three thousand on the day of Pente- 
cost. This He has been doing ever since. And no oth- 
erwise can any one be inwardly and influentially con- 
vinced of these facts, can they and their results be 
brought to the individual consciousness. 

Here we rest the argument. And could any argu- 
ment be more complete? Not one link is missing. All 
is solid, because all is Divine. The two Testaments, 
opened to the consciousness by The Spirit, do to and for 
us what Jesus did to and for the disciples. They, as 
He did, lift up our faith into the region, and place it up- 
on the foundation, of the Divine. The whole humanity 
surrenders gladly to the facts, and then allows them to 
exert upon it their purifying, ennobling influences. Then 
it becomes possessed of a faith that is living, for it springs 
from, and is nourished by life. It is an intelligent faith, 
for it possesses all the information in the case. It is a 
historic faith, for it reposes upon historic facts. It is a 
scientific fact, for it sees in the things a true scientific 
development, a "must be" according to law. It is a 
saving faith, for it lifts man out of the most frightful, and 
elevates him into the most exalted position. And im- 
measurably higher than all else, it is a Divine faith, 
for its deepest, its eternal foundation is, not the wisdom 
of men, but the power of the living, personal God. 
HALLELUJAH! 

Christmas: Christ is born. 

Gtood Friday: Christ died for our sins. 

Easter: Christ is risen. 

Ascension Day: Christ has ascended. 

Parousia: Christ is coming. 

HALLELUJAH! 



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